Host nation Greece won their first gold medal of the Athens Olympics when Nikolaos Siranidis and Thomas Bimis triumphed in the men’s synchronised diving 3m springboard event on Monday. ”We hope that this will open the way for more medals for Greece,” said Bimis. Chinese favourites Peng Bo and Wang Kenan finished last.

A sober mood settled over the South African camp after the jubilant party of a world-record Olympic gold medal as the team awaited news of a scan of the troublesome ankle of world high-jump champion Jacques Freitag in Athens on Monday. South Africa also didn’t fare well in two boxing events at the Games.

An injury to the bowling shoulder of Sri Lanka’s record-breaking off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan wasn’t as bad as first feared and an operation to fix it was a success, his surgeon told Australia’s national broadcaster on Tuesday. Muralitharan will likely be sidelined for five months, but he should regain full use of his shoulder.

A delegation from Iraq’s first national conference will on Tuesday travel to the holy city of Najaf in a bold attempt to broker a peace deal with the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The group of Iraqi politicians will set off from Baghdad in a fleet of minibuses, pursuing an initiative first suggested by a distant relative of the cleric, Sayed Hussain al-Sadr.

Tumbleweed blowing across the car parks, under-worked staff in the box offices and empty seats in the stands. Welcome to Athens 2004. ”We will not be giving tickets away, and we will not be offering discounts. To do so would be unfair to those who have paid full price,” an Olympic games spokesperson, Michael Zacharatos, said on Monday, denying there were plans to, in a phrase used most commonly by failed theatre impresarios, ”paper the house”.

Australian media on Tuesday hailed Ian Thorpe’s 200m freestyle victory in the ”race of the century” at the Athens pool and crowned the swimmer this nation’s best Olympian to date. Petria Thomas’s victory in the 100m butterfly earned just as many plaudits because of the adversity the 28-year-old overcame.

United States equestrian Robert Dover is among the rarest of all 10 500 athletes in Athens, not only for his six Olympic appearances but because he is one of a tiny handful of competitors who publicly identifies himself as gay. But many believe there are scores of other gay and lesbian athletes at these Summer Games.

Robert Key and Andrew Flintoff hit unbeaten half centuries as England recovered against the West Indies on the fifth and final day on Monday to win by seven wickets. Key anchored the 231-run second-innings chase with an unbeaten 93 as the home team reached their target with 27,2 overs left in the final session.

Manchester United, who are now thought unlikely to buy a new striker despite their injury problems, can bounce back after their opening Premiership defeat at Chelsea on Sunday, their French defender Mikael Silvestre predicted. Silvestre said United deserved a draw rather than the 1-0 loss to pre-season big spenders Chelsea.