The action continued at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing on Friday. Here are the results:

In the women’s 5000m event, Ethiopa’s Tirunesh Dibaba Kenene took the Gold Medal, her second of the Beijing Olympic Games. She was followed to the finish line by Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey for the Silver Medal and Meseret Defar Tola of Ethiopia for the Bronze Medal.
Dibaba also won the Gold Medal in the women’s 10,000 event. She is the first woman to win both long distance events in a single Olympics. American Kara Goucher finished ninth.

In the womens long jump competition, Brazil’s Maurren Higa Maggi …read more

The track and field events (properly the Athletes events) began today in Beijing at the Bird’s Nest Stadium. One of the first races was the women’s 10,000m contest.
Two-time world champion, Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopa won the Gold Medal with a new Olympic time of 29:54.66. She was followed by Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey for the Silver Medal.
Shalane Flanagan of the United States earned the Bronze Medal with a new American record time of 30:22.22. Hers is only the second medal ever awarded to an American in that event.
(photo © Newscom)

Chen Xiexia, a competitor in the women’s 48kg weighlifting event, was the first Olympian to win a medal for the host country, China. She bested Silver Medalist Sibel Ozkan of Turkey and Bronze Medalist Chen Wei-Ling of Taiwan with a total score of 212kg.
The 25-year-old Chen won three Gold Medals at the 2007 World Weightlighting Championships as well as three Golds at the 2007 Asian Championship.

In an exhibition game in Macau, China this morning (Thursday night by China time), Team USA showed they were getting ready for the Beijing Games by defeating Turkey 114 to 82. LeBron James’ ankle injury seems to be a thing of the past as the 6′ 8″ team co-captain scored 20 points, seizing control of the game late in the second quarter. Carmelo Anthony added 17 points and Dwight Howard finished with 14.
(photo © Newscom)

I just wanted to greet all the Light the Torch readers who celebrate this particular holiday. Don’t you love the excuse to stuff yourself? [Pardon the pun. Heehee.]
So, take the day off from your usual meanderings in the sports world and just focus on family, friends and, yea, FOOD! Can I actually convince you to do that?! LOL.
Anyone kind enough to invite me over to sample some of the turkey? I love roasts.