Britain nabs 1st gold medals

American women take bronze in quad sculls

U.S. rowers, from right, Adrienne Martelli, Megan Kalmoe, Kara Kohler, and Natalie Dell wave to fans after winning the bronze medal for the women's rowing quadruple sculls on Wednesday.

LONDON -- Host Britain picked up its first two gold medals of the games when Helen Glover and Heather Stanning won the final of the women's pair at the rowing regatta and cyclist Bradley Wiggins took the time trial, delighting the crowd at Hampton Court Palace on the banks of the River Thames.

Germany lived up to its billing as the favorite for the men's eight, producing a late burst to get the win at Dorney Lake.

Canada captured silver, falling short in its bid to defend its gold medal from Beijing. Britain settled for bronze.

Ukraine won its first Olympic rowing gold medal in women's quadruple sculls. The Germans took silver and the U.S. team was third.

American Kristin Armstrong defended her title in the women's cycling time trial, beating Judith Arndt of Germany by more than 15 seconds to get the gold.

Boxing

Three American fighters lost to a Cuban world champion and two Russian heavyweight, depleting the U.S. ranks to four remaining men.

Top-seeded bantamweight Lazaro Alvarez of Cuba beat Joseph Diaz, Jr., 21-15, and U.S. heavyweight Michael Hunter tired badly in the third round of a narrow loss to Artur Beterbiev before super heavyweight Dominic Breazeale dropped a 19-8 decision to Magomed Omarov.

Fencing

Two-time Olympic sabre champion Mariel Zagunis, who carried the American flag at the opening ceremony, lost her last two matches and failed to make the podium.

Kim Jiyeon of South Korea won the gold, beating Russia's Sofya Velikaya in the final. Olga Kharlan of Ukraine got the bronze.

Seth Kelsey of the U.S. also dropped his last two matches in men's individual epee, leaving him without a medal as well. Venezuela's Ruben Limardo, Norway's Bartosz Piasecki and Jung Jinsun of South Korea took the top three spots.

Soccer

Britain beat Uruguay 1-0 in its final group game to join fellow medal contenders Brazil and Mexico in the quarterfinals. Chelsea striker Daniel Sturridge scored the winner just before halftime.

Oribe Peralta scored a second-half goal as Mexico topped Switzerland 1-0, and Honduras continued its surprise run by drawing 0-0 with Group D winner Japan to take a place in the last eight. Egypt, Senegal, and South Korea also reached the quarters.

Sailing

Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, the 49er favorites coming into London, extended their lead to 13 points over rivals Peter Burling and Blair Tuke of New Zealand.

France's Emmanuel Dyen and Stephane Christidis won the first race to jump into third place, where they remained after finishing 10th in the day's second race.

In the women's Laser Radial, Ireland's Annalise Murphy had finishes of 8th and 19th after winning the first four races as she leads the fleet with 12 points.

Diving

China completed a sweep of the synchronized diving events, winning the men's 3-meter springboard to move halfway toward taking each of the diving gold medals.

Qin Kai and partner Luo Yutong led all six rounds of the final, totaling 477.00 points. Ilya Zakharov and Evgeny Kuznetsov of Russia took the silver at 459.63.

Kristian Ipsen and Troy Dumais of the United States earned the bronze at 446.70. It was the first medal of Dumais' long career in his fourth Olympics, equaling Greg Louganis for most appearances by a male U.S. diver.

Water polo

Maica Garcia scored twice in the last two minutes as Spain rallied for a 9-9 draw with the United States in the women's tournament. The U.S. team plays China on Friday.

Handball

Andrea Penezic scored 10 goals to help Croatia beat Russia 30-28, leaving Brazil as the only team with three wins in three games.

Ana Paula Rodrigues scored seven goals to power Brazil past Britain 30-17.

Field hockey

Australia overwhelmed Spain 5-0 in the men's tournament, turning what was expected to be a close match into a rout.

Defending champion Germany beat South Korea 1-0 to move into second position in Group B, behind medal hopeful the Netherlands. Mink van der Weerden scored twice to lead the Dutch past Belgium 3-1 for their second win.

Table tennis

China's first table tennis gold of the games went to Li Xiaoxia, who upset teammate Ding Ning.

Li raced to the stands to get a Chinese flag and waved it around for a few moments, but her celebration was mostly subdued.

Feng Tianwei of Singapore defeated Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan for bronze. Feng was born in China and was recruited to play in Singapore.