Olympic news

Prime Minister Gordon Brown took a front-row seat to watch the fencing segment of the women's modern pentathlon yesterday, cheering on Britain's two medal contenders and taking notes on the art of duelling.

Brown told reporters afterwards he had thoroughly enjoyed watching Britain's Heather Fell win 20 of her 35 one-minute duels. Katy Livingston won only 17 of her 35 bouts.

"I'm learning everything as I go along," Brown told a small group of journalists as he was leaving the venue. "It's a thrilling match and a great facility."

Brown chose simply to roar with laughter when asked by one reporter: "Did you learn anything in the fencing that you could use in the election campaign?"

Modern pentathlon is the quintessential Olympic test of strength and stamina involving fencing, shooting, swimming, horse riding and running.

Beckham for closing ceremony

England footballer David Beckham will take centre stage when the Olympic flag is handed to London at tomorrow's closing ceremony in Beijing.

Beckham, whose popularity in China dwarfs that of even record-breaking swimmer Michael Phelps or sprint sensation Usain Bolt, will take part in London 2012's eight-minute slot in the Games finale designed to showcase the next host city.

The Los Angeles Galaxy player will be joined in the Bird's Nest stadium by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and London-born singer Leona Lewis as well as dancers from the Royal Opera House and numerous sportsmen and women from previous Olympic Games.

No details were revealed about the content of the show or exactly what Beckham's role would be but his appearance is likely to get the biggest cheer of the night.

Difficult future for Brazil girls

Brazil's women soccer players return home to an uncertain future after another agonising failure in a major tournament.

Beaten 1-0 by the United States in Thursday's gold medal match, their third successive loss in a final following the 2004 Games and last year's World Cup, Brazil fear they may have missed a chance to pull the sport back home out of the doldrums.

Coach Jorge Barcellos urged Brazil's major clubs to give women's football a chance.

"The first thing we need is for Brazilian clubs to develop a women's football department and youth divisions," he said. "If you don't have youth divisions, you won't have anything for the future."

Although women's football is shown live in Brazil during the Olympic Games and World Cup and has grown enormously as a participants' sport, the country does not have a regular professional championship.

Italian defies heat to win walk

Italy's Alex Schwazer won the Olympic 50km walk yesterday, setting an Olympic record despite conditions made brutal by relentless sun.

Schwazer, a double world championship bronze medallist, broke clear around the 42km mark and covered the longest race in the athletics programme in three hours, 37 minutes, nine seconds.

It was a hugely impressive performance by Schwazer, who took more than a minute off the 20-year-old Olympic record set by Vyacheslav Ivanenko, in Seoul.

Lip-syncher gets her 15 minutes of fame

Lip-synch and you could be almost as famous as Michael Phelps.

A worldwide media survey yesterday showed that the winner of eight swimming gold medals at the 2008 Olympics is the most famous figure at the Beijing Games. But Lin Miaoke, the pretty little girl who lip-synched at the opening ceremony for the real singer who had crooked teeth, is catching up fast.

The Texas-based Global Language Monitor, which analyses the global media to see whose name gets mentioned most, found, not surprisingly, that Phelps topped the latest findings.

Lin Miaoke, 9, made an instant worldwide media hit. In the Monitor's "TrendTopper Buzzmeter" she knocked Chinese basketball player Yao Ming into third place.

New Bolt... nowhere in sight

Jamaican coach Don Quarrie said it may take the Caribbean island another 20 years to produce an athlete like double sprint gold medallist Usain Bolt.

Revelling in Jamaica's rich sprinting tradition that has now been converted into gold at the Beijing Games, Quarrie said: "The seed has been sown now. I am sure there are kids running around in Jamaica wanting to be Usain Bolt."

"Now that Usain Bolt has done this, it may take us another 20 years to produce an athlete as outstanding as him," he told reporters.

Quarrie certainly was speaking as the voice of experience. He is the last man, back in the 1970s, to hold both the 100m and 200m world records simultaneously, like Bolt now does after his Bird's Nest wins.