China's Xian Dongmei defeated North Korea's An Kum Ae to successfully defend her Olympic judo title in the women's 52-kg class on Sunday.

At the end of a ferocious flailing of arms and legs, Xian scored a crucial uko and coolly ran down the clock to win as An desperately tried to counter-attack.

Algeria's Soraya Haddad, the only non-Asian to advance to the semi-finals, overpowered Kazakhstan's Sholpan Kaliyeva to take the first bronze.

Japanese teenager Misato Nakamura threw South Korea's Kim Kyungok for waza ari early in the other decider, and then pinned her for automatic victory to take the second bronze.

Montenegro, the new boys on the Olympic block, held champions Hungary to a draw on Sunday after fighting back from being three goals down.

The former Yugoslav republic, making its debut in the Olympics after declaring independence from its union with Serbia in June 2006, has emerged as a force in water polo on the world stage, winning the European championships in July.

Hungary held the three goal lead in the third quarter but a defensive collapse allowed Montenegro to make a comeback and take a late lead before Hungary tied the game at 10-10.

Virdhawal Khade's campaign in the 200m freestyle campaign sunk without trace at the Water Cube, the Indian teen failing to make it to the semi-finals of the event at the Beijing Olympics on Sunday.

The Kolhapur boy clocked 1:51.86 seconds and finished seventh in the eight-man Heat 4 and overall 48th on the chart. It was way below his personal best of 1 min 50.35 sec, which came at the second FINA World Youth Swimming Championships last month.

He finished 6.06 seconds behind Switzerland's Dominik Michtry, who clocked 1:45.80s to top the table.

Khade still has two more events -- the 50m and 100m freestyle left in the ongoing Olympics.

Indian badminton ace Anup Sridhar entered the last 32 satge in the men's singles badminton tournament after a 21-16, 21-14 victory over Portugal's Marco Vasconcelos on Sunday evening.

In the morning Saina Nehwal beat Ukrainian Larysa Gryga in straight games to advance to the women's singles pre-quarter-finals.

The Indian ace won 21-18, 21-10 in just 28 minutes.

Top seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia withdrew from the Olympic tennis event on Sunday with an injury to her right thumb.

"This is one of the worst moments of my career," Ivanovic told a news conference at the Olympic Tennis Centre.

Ivanovic, who will be replaced by fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic at the top of the world rankings on Monday, said she had not been able to practise since arriving in China.

She said she sustained the injury when she returned to training after losing at Wimbledon.

Nachhatar Singh Johal, the lone sailor representing India at the Olympics, fell by the wayside as he continued to languish at 23rd in the overall standings of the Finn Class at the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Centre.

Johal, who made an impressive start to his campaign on Saturday, securing fourth spot in the first race but sliding down to 22nd in the second, pocketed 23 and 24 points in the third and fourth races of the Finn Class on Sunday.

With a win in the fifth race on Sunday, Swede Daniel Birgmark has taken the top spot in the overall standings.

The Indian rowers duo of Devender Kumar Khandwal and Manjeet Singh finished last in the Lightweight men's double sculls heats at the Olympics on Sunday but would get another shot at qualifying for the semi-finals as the duo now compete in a repechage.

The Indians clocked 6:37.13, nearly 21 seconds behind the winners -- Marcello Miani and Elia Luini of Italy, who timed 6:16.22.

The top two pairs from each heat, consisting of five teams, move into the semifinals while the next three go into a repechage.

Ronaldinho scored twice as Brazil thumped underdogs New Zealand 5-0 to guarantee a berth in the quarterfinals of the Olympic Men's Football tournament.

Anderson, Alexandre Pato and Rafael Sobis accounted for other goals

Argentina edged out Australia 1-0 to retain first place in the group. Ezequiel Lavezzi struck for Argentina in the 76th minute.

Cameroon and Nigeria earned their first victories in the competition by beating Honduras and Japan in the other two matches.

Nicole Cooke won Britain's first gold of the Games after surviving an uphill sprint finish in the pouring rain in the women's Olympic 126-km road race on Sunday.

After a slippery ride on the hilly roads around the Great Wall, Cooke narrowly beat Sweden's Emma Johansson who took the silver and Tatiana Guderzo of Italy who came in third.

"I did it, I did it," screamed Cooke, who rode a carbon fiber bicycle especially designed for the Beijing Games, as she rushed to hug fellow British cyclists after the finish.

The women survived several crashes during a very wet race that began in ancient Beijing and wound its way out to the Great Wall of China where the cyclists completed two laps of a hilly, 24-km circuit between two sections of the wall.

Olympic organisers vowed to tighten security in central Beijing on Sunday after a US tourist died in a stabbing attack but they insisted the Chinese capital was safe.

"There is no reason to believe the attack was targeted on Americans," said Beijing Olympic spokesman Wang Wei.

Todd Bachman died in Saturday's attack by an unemployed Chinese man who then killed himself.

Assaults on foreigners in Beijing are rare. Police say they have no idea what the killer's motive was.

"We are going to strengthen security in scenic spots... to make sure no sharp weapons can be brought into the area," Wang told reporters.

"Beijing is a safe city but unfortunately we are not immune to violent acts."

Bachman's wife, Barbara, was in a critical but stable condition on Sunday after undergoing eight hours of surgery. She suffered multiple lacerations and stab wounds in the attack.

The US Olympic Committee said members of her family, including her son-in-law Hugh McCutcheon, who is a coach with the U.S. men's volleyball team for the Olympics, were with her.

The US men's volleyball team are playing their opening game against Venezuela on Sunday. McCutcheon, a New Zealander, will not be on the bench, US officials said.

David Kostelecky of the Czech Republic won the Olympic gold medal in the men's trap shooting on Sunday.

Italy's Giovanni Pellielo won the silver and there will be a shoot-off to decide the bronze medal.

Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon from Thailand won the Olympic weightlifting gold medal in the women's 53kg class on Sunday after a fast and tense competition between several close rivals.

Prapawadee, a university student, snatched 95kg and lifted 126kg for the clean and jerk, grabbing gold with a total of 221kg.

Yoon Jin-hee from South Korea won the silver and Nastassia Novikava from Belarus, the bronze. Prapawadee set an Olympic record on her way to winning the gold.

Chinese women have dominated weightlifting, but the Olympic host had no entrants in the 53kg category, creating space for top contenders from Korea, the Dominican Republic, Belarus, Indonesia and Thailand.

There were only nine competitors in the entire category and about half of them lifted almost the same weight, making for a particularly terse competition that alternately left the audience holding its breath in suspense and cheering with relief.

Athens Olympic champion Park Sung-hyun came within a whisker of perfection on Sunday.

The South Korean missed the 10-point mark only once, with a nine, to guide South Korea to a world record and victory over Italy in the women's Olympic team archery quarter-finals.

Park, Yun Ok-hee and Joo Hyun-jung shot 231 out of a possible 240, breaking the previous record of 228 they set two years ago. Park looked at her feet when she missed the 10, but denied she was disappointed.

"I looked unhappy but I was just trying to maintain my composure," she said. "We are happy to break the world record but what matters most is to get the gold medal this afternoon."

Guo Wenjun of China won the gold medal in the women's 10m air pistol on Sunday in a stirring final that produced an Olympics medals showdown between Russia and Georgia against the backdrop of a military conflict back home.

Georgia's Nino Salukvadze, who almost left the Games earlier on Sunday with her 35-member team over the conflict with Russia, took bronze behind Russia's Natalia Paderina in silver.

Nino Salukvadze of Georgia embraced her Russian rival and made a moving appeal for peace after winning an Olympic bronze medal in shooting on Sunday.

Salukvadze, who competed only after the 35-member Georgian team were told by their president to remain at the Games in the "best interest of the country" despite Russian military attacks on its territory, finished behind Russia's Natalia Paderina.

"If the world were to draw any lessons from what I did there would never be any wars," Salukvadze said.

The two rival shooters -- who were once team mates in the Soviet Union -- hugged and kissed each other on the cheeks after the dramatic final in the Beijing shooting range hall, where China's Guo Wenjung came from behind to win the gold medal.

"We live in the 21st Century, after all," said Salukvadze, who wiped tears from her eyes when she put her pistol down after her final shot and the crowd applauded. "We shouldn't really stoop so low to wage wars against each other."

Indian shooters continued to draw a blank in Beijing Olympics with Manavjit Singh Sandhu wilting under pressure and compatriot Mansher Singh too failing to make it to the finals of the men's trap event in Beijing on Sunday.

Tipped a medal prospect, Manavjit could manage only 116 out of 125 to finish 12th at the end of the five-round qualifying sessions spread over two days at the Beijing Shooting Range.

In comparison, Mansher did better, tallying 117 to finish eighth. Mansher in fact came close to qualifying for the finals but in the end, a place in the top six just proved elusive for him.

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal continued her fine form, beating Ukrainian Larysa Gryga in straight games to advance to the women's singles pre-quarterfinals of the badminton competition at the Olympic Games in Beijing on Sunday.

The Indian took time to gauge her opponent, whom she played for the first time, before pulling out all the stops to tame her 21-18, 21-10 in just 28 minutes.

Saina's real test, however, begins now, for the Indian is set to lock horns on Monday with world number five and fourth seed Chen Wang of Hong Kong, someone she could not beat in her last two attempts.

Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou will not be allowed to compete in the Beijing Games after her involvement in a doping scandal four years ago, the International Olympic Committee ruled on Sunday.

Thanou and fellow Greek sprinter Costas Kenteris were at the heart of the biggest Olympic doping affair in years when they missed a drugs test just before the Athens 2004 Games.

Returning from a ban, she qualified for Beijing but needed IOC approval to compete.

Thanou and Kenteris were banned for anti-doping rule violations until December 2006 after missing the drugs test inside the athletes' village on the eve of the Athens Games.

Thanou, who won the 100m silver medal at the Sydney 2000 Games, has raced only a handful of times since then but met the Beijing qualifying time and won inclusion in Greece's Olympic team.

Guo Wenjun of China won the gold medal in the women's 10m air pistol on Sunday, beating Russia's Natalia Paderina with a new Olympic record in the final.

Georgia's Nino Salukvadze, who almost left the Games earlier on Sunday with her 35-member team over a conflict with Russia at home, took bronze. After putting down her pistol on her final shot, she wiped tears from her eyes.

Russia's Paderina, who had led after the qualifying round, might have been rattled when there was no applause as she was introduced to the crowd of 2,000 spectators. There had been warm applause for the other finalists and loud cheering for Guo.

Salukvadze took the bronze medal after moving up from fourth place after qualifying.

The Indian trio of L Bombayla Devi, Dola Banerjee and Pranitha Vardhineni came agonisingly close to a place in the medal rounds before hosts China shattered their hopes with a nail-biting win in the quarter-finals of the women's archery team event at the Olympics in Beijing on Sunday.

Bombayla, Dola and Pranitha, the trio which got a bye in the first round, lost 206-211 to th Chinese trio of Lin Jiang, Wenquan Li and Feng Hai Xue.

The Indian eves could manage only five 10s as opposed to China's nine that ultimately tilted the result in host team's favour.

Michael Phelps shattered his own world record in the 400 meters individual medley final on Sunday in a devastating start to his campaign to collect eight Olympic gold medals in China.

The lanky American fought off a strong challenge from Hungary's Laszlo Cseh and US team mate Ryan Lochte to win the gold in four minutes 03.84 seconds, wiping 1.41 off the world record of 4:05.25 he set at the US Olympic trials six weeks ago.

Cseh, who set a cracking pace to lead the race after the first butterfly lap, slipped back to third after the breaststroke then fought back strongly to snatch the silver in 4:06.16 while Lochte won bronze in 4:08.09 after fading on the concluding freestyle leg after briefly threatening Phelps.

The start of the Olympic tennis tournament was delayed by rain on Sunday.

Play had been scheduled to begin at 1030 and organizers had hoped for a delay of only 10 minutes but rain continued to fall at the Olympic Tennis Centre.

The first match due on Centre Court is American James Blake against Australia's Chris Guccione in the men's singles.

Top seed Roger Federer of Switzerland is also in singles action later on Sunday against Russian Dmitry Tursunov.