China’s weightlifters – winner of five Olympic gold medals overall at London 2012 - won both today’s finals to bring their total of golds to three so far at Rio 2016.

An Olympic record of 110 kilograms in the snatch section helped 21-year-old Sukanya Srisurat become the youngest ever Olympic champion in the women’s 58kg weightlifting event here as she and fellow Thai lifter Pimsiri Sirikaew took respective gold and silver at Rio 2016.

Russia's Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has called the decision by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to ban his country's competitors from Rio 2016 as "beyond belief".

Being a part of the Olympic Movement is key to growing the game of golf worldwide, the President of the International Golf Federation (IGF) Peter Dawson said here as he announced the men’s draw for the first Olympic golf tournament to be held in 112 years.

The efforts of Italy’s 3,000 metres steeplechase champion, Moroccan-born Jamel Chatbi, to compete in the Olympic Games have been blocked by the National Anti-Doping Tribunal, which has defied a court ruling and suspended him for missing three scheduled doping tests last year.

Russia intends to appeal “in the near future” against today’s confirmation here by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) that all their competitors will be banned from the Paralympics due to take place here from September 7 to 18.

Eight years after winning the Olympic 56 kilograms weightlifting title on the home soil of Beijing as a 17-year-old, China’s Long Qingquan returned to the top of the podium after a titanic and dramatic contest with North Korea’s defending champion Om Yun Chol – and it took a world record total of 307kg to do it.

The International Paralympic Committee today confirmed its decision to ban Russian para-athletes from the Rio 2016 Games as IPC President Sir Philip Craven described the anti-doping system in Russia as "broken, corrupted and entirely compromised.”

Michelle Ford, the only non Eastern-bloc female swimmer to win individual Olympic gold against East Germans during their state-doping years, has called upon the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to do more to acknowledge athletes who have been cheated out of medals in what she calls the “forgotten era.”

Sopita Tanasan earned Thailand its fourth Olympic medal in women’s weightlifting since it was introduced at the 2000 Sydney Games as she managed a combined total of 200 kilograms in the women’s 48kg final at the Riocentro – Pavilion 2 here.

Kim Woojin, controversially left out of South Korea’s archery team for the 2012 Olympics in London, is making the most of Rio 2016 - having set a world record of 700 points in the men’s individual ranking round yesterday, he helped his team win the gold medal in the first final with successive 6-0 wins over the Netherlands, Australia and the United States.

China, winner of the eight diving gold medals on offer at the 2012 Olympics in London, is aiming to maintain its dominance in the Rio 2016 competition due to get underway in the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre tomorrow as it provides potential winners in all eight events.

The US record of five consecutive wins in the men’s 400m individual medley is under extreme pressure from the Japanese pair of Kosuke Hagino and Daiya Seto as the Rio 2016 swimming programme gets underway tomorrow.

Tegla Loroupe, Chef de Mission for the 10-strong Refugee Olympic Team that will make a historic first appearance at the Rio Olympics, wants to extend the training system that has produced the team’s five track athletes for another five years to offer other talented refugees the opportunity to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Games.