Press rights group Reporters Without Borders said yesterday the Olympics had been a disaster for free speech in China.

In a statement, the Paris-based group said China had placed restrictions on the activities of scores of human rights and pro-Tibet activists and some foreign journalists.

Reporters Without Borders spokesman Benoit Hervieu told Reuters there were 'absolutely no grounds for optimism' that the Beijing Olympics would help improve human rights in China.

The group said 47 pro-Tibet activists had been arrested and at least 50 human rights activists placed under house arrest, harassed or forced to leave Beijing during the games. At least 15 Chinese citizens were arrested for seeking permission to demonstrate, the group added.

Ireland chief fed up with doping

Ireland's Olympic chief was quoted yesterday as saying he was tired of the country's reputation being tarnished by positive doping tests in show jumping.

Pat Hickey, the president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, said equestrian sports in Ireland did not seem to follow the same rigorous anti-doping procedures as other sports and vowed there would be repercussions after the Olympics.

"I am sick and tired of our name being dragged through the mud like this," he said.

Denis Lynch, of Ireland, was one of four show jumpers suspended from the Olympics after their horses tested positive. The other three riders were from Norway, Brazil and Germany.

Ukraine lifter fails drugs test

The IOC said yesterday it had disqualified Ukrainian weightlifter Igor Razoronov after he tested positive for drugs. Razoronov had finished sixth in the 105kg category but is now stripped of his Games accreditation, the IOC said.

He becomes the sixth athlete to fail a drugs test at the Beijing Games.

The IOC said he had failed an Aug. 18 drugs control, testing positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid.

Another Ukrainian, heptathlete Lyudmila Blonska, had her silver medal stripped after she tested positive for an anabolic steroid days ago.

Online bidders launch bid for gold

Online traders are racing to cash in on the Beijing Olympics by selling items related to gold medal winners.

Michael Phelps, who won eight gold medals at Beijing making him the most successful Olympian ever, was the hottest target for dealers on Internet auction sites.

Karen Bard, an eBay spokeswoman, said the number of items related to Phelps had soared 738 per cent in the past 30 days.

"One of the highest priced sold items was an autographed Olympic Speedo swim cap from a special appearance he did in Baltimore in 2004. It sold for $645," she told Reuters via email.

She said 19,755 Olympic items had been sold in the past 90 days with the top price of $6,000 paid for a ticket to the opening ceremony in the Bird's Nest stadium on August 8.

Slopes, mud, danger daunt riders

Mountain bikers battled extreme obstacles, as well as the heat and the mud, on a steep, boulder-strewn course made tougher by the sport's officials this year for yesterday's Olympic finals.

Twelve of the 30 women finalists did not finish, many fell off their bikes and others said they barely completed their runs on the Laoshan Mountain Bike Course on a wooded hill in west Beijing.

"The course was much easier before than this year," said silver medallist Maja Wloszczowska, of Poland. "They added another downhill, which was dangerous. I also had brake trouble on the third lap."

The loop, redesigned this year by the UCI following criticism by riders after last year's test competition that it was too easy, included banked curves, rocks and climbing sections through heavy brush and woods.