LONDON – Germany's Michael Jung created equestrian history at the London Games Tuesday, winning gold to become the first rider to hold the European, world and Olympic individual eventing titles. It was a red letter day for the record-breaker as he had earlier picked up eventing team gold on his brilliant horse Sam, all of this on the day he celebrated his 30th birthday. In silver came Sweden's Sara Algotsson-Ostholt, who suffered wretched luck as she was on target to become the first woman to take the title only for her grey mare Wega to knock the top pole off the final fence. That left her with a combined total after the dressage and cross country of 43.30 points, behind Jung on 40.60. The bronze medal went to Jung's compatriot, Sandra Auffarth, with 44.80 points. Earlier, Germany defended its Olympic eventing team title by a whisker from Great Britain with New Zealand taking bronze in the concluding jumping session at Greenwich Park. Jung's clear round on Sam after equally foot-perfect displays from Dirk Schrade and Sandra Auffrath gave the winner in Beijing four years ago an unassailable lead in the closing jumping session. That left Britain, featuring Zara Phillips, the grand daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, and the Kiwis, led by charismatic veteran Mark Todd, to fight it out for the runner-up honor. The home favorites duly nabbed it when Todd knocked a fence down while British anchor Tina Cook went clear to the delight of the capacity 20,000 crowd including Prince William and wife Kate, Prince Harry and former British Prime Minister John Major. US grabs gymnastics gold Jordyn Wieber sparkled and Gabby Douglas dazzled as the United States stormed to the Olympic women's gymnastics team gold Tuesday. Two days after an inconsolable Wieber fled the North Greenwich Arena in tears having missed out on a spot in the all-around final, her smile was back as she and her teammates gave the US its first Olympic team title since 1996. So strong was it on all four apparatus, that it won the title by a huge margin of 5.066 with a total of 183.596 points. Russia's quintet had been snapping at the Americans' heels throughout the competition but were left sobbing after they imploded on their final apparatus, the floor. Ksenia Afanaseva completed her floor routine on her head and knees, summing up their miserable finish as they ended with 178.530 points. Romania, champion in 2004, rallied from a poor start to claim bronze but 2008 gold medalist China was empty-handed in fourth after a succession of errors. Romania's bronze owed much to the return of Catalina Ponor, a triple gold-medalist from the 2004 Athens Games, at the age of 24 after an eight-year Olympic break from the sport. — Agencies
