Ethiopia's champion Kenenisa Bekele matched his compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba's magnificent distant double of 5000 and 10,000 metres in the women's event when he ran a customary scorching last lap to win the 5000 metres event while hosts China have all but completed their status as the new global

sporting superpower by the end of the 15th and penultimate day at the Beijing Olympics here yesterday.
The 26-year old Bekele won in 30m in a time of 12min57.82sec from a pair of Kenyans, Eluid Kipchoge (13:02.80) and Edwin Soi (13:06.22). Reigning world champion Bernard Lagat was found wanting over the last four laps and finished a distant ninth.

China had taken an unassailable lead at the top of the table with 49 golds while the traditional superpower of the Olympics US had slipped to second place and were distantly behind at 33 golds. Russia's late charge finally helped them overtake Great Britain for the third place in the medals table, reaching 21 golds while Britain who are enjoying their most successful Olympics ever, had 19 golds for the fourth place.

Americans made up for their mistakes in sprint relays by winning both 4x400 meters yesterday. US men won in 2:55.39 while the women won in 3:18.54 to atone for their 4x100 relay teams who dropped batons and failed to qualify for finals.

Argentina won the soccer gold defeating Nigeria in the finals while Brazil beat US for the women's volleyball gold by two sets to one.

Track star of these Games Usain Bolt answered the skeptics about the sensational success of the Jamaican in the sprints and insisted all of them were clean.

"I've been tested so many times in the competition I've lost count. We know we're good, we know we're clean. We work hard and any time you want to test us, it's okay." Said Bolt who won three gold medals 100, 200 sprint double and also the 4X100 metres relay with three world records to take the Olympics by storm.