Usain Bolt rode to the rescue of his beleaguered sport in the toughest race of his career as he dashed Justin Gatlin’s hopes of 100m gold at the World Championships in Beijing.

The evening prior to his Diamond League debut in mid-May, Thomas Barr posted a picture of the men’s 400m hurdles startlist on his Instagram account.

Back at the scene of his 2008 Olympic triumphs, Usain Bolt will square off against controversial American Justin Gatlin in the 100m at the world championships.

Hosting a global sporting occasion won’t make a country rich, and isn’t even that good for tourism — but it will make its people happy.

ON A day that will be remembered at the Paralympic Games for the bronze medal- winning performance of Gabriel Shelly in the individual Boccia competition, Ireland’s other paralympians were not to be outdone, setting new Irish records in the velodrome, and the Water Cube.

IRISH cyclists Padraic Moran and Gay Shelly set new national records in their respective events on a day of contrasting emotions in the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing yesterday.

IT MAY be something of a second coming but Jamie Costin will have arrived when he lines up for the 50k walk in the Bird’s Nest tomorrow morning (12.30am Irish time).

Usain Bolt tonight joined an exclusive club when he stormed to victory in the 200m final at the Bird’s Nest in a new world record time of 19.30 seconds.

LONG before yesterday’s qualification rounds of the women’s hammer in Beijing, there were doubts about Eileen O’Keeffe’s wellbeing, even about her participation.

Russian athlete Yelena Isinbaeva broke her own world record to win gold in the women’s pole vault in Beijing.

Host nation hero Liu Xiang’s dreams of Olympic glory ended when he was forced to pull out of his 110m hurdles heat.

A LITTLE over 20 minutes after Constantina Tomescu won the Olympic Women’s Marathon, Pauline Curley jogged into Beijing’s National Stadium to begin her own victory lap.

SPORTS Minister Martin Cullen has spoken of the ‘comfortableness of the relationship’ between Ireland and China, a country long criticised for its human rights violations and policies.

Paula Radcliffe insisted she would have walked all the way to the marathon finish line if necessary after her quest for an elusive Olympic medal ended once more in pain and tears.

The eyes of the world were on Beijing as a glittering opening ceremony heralded the start of the Games.

The Olympic flame made one of its final relays today, on the eve of the Games’ opening ceremony, as torchbearers carried it along the ancient Great Wall of China.

Tens of thousands of people were feared dead tonight in a huge earthquake that shattered central China.