Olympics day 14 early wrap: Chebet completes golden double, Spain spoil France's soccer party, Thiam wins third straight heptathlon gold

Belgian Thiam wins third straight heptathlon gold

Belgium's Nafissatou Thiam won her third successive Olympic women's heptathlon gold medal on Friday, all but securing victory with a big javelin throw to deny Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson who battled to the silver.

Thiam, the first multi-event athlete in Olympic history to win three titles, scored 6,880 points, overtaking Johnson-Thompson in the javelin to move ahead of the Briton by 121 points going into the final 800m, which was the equivalent to an 8.6-second advantage.

Canada win sprint relay, South Africa takes silver and US blow it yet again

Canada won the men’s Olympic 4x100m relay for the second time on Friday after hot favourites the US messed up a changeover yet again and were disqualified.

Andre de Grasse ran a superb last leg to bring the Tokyo silver medallists home in 37.50 seconds for a second gold in the event after their 1996 success.

Akani Simbine, the nearly man of the individual 100 metres, also ran a terrific last leg to get South Africa silver in an African record 37.57, as did Zharnel Hughes to earn Britain bronze in 37.61.

Dominican Republic's Paulino surges to 400m gold

Dominican Republic's Marileidy Paulino surged to victory in the 400 metres to add Olympic gold to her world title on a rainy night at the Stade de France on Friday and said she hoped her achievement would inspire youngsters in her country.

Paulino had been unbeaten over the distance at four consecutive meets this year and stormed to a comfortable lead halfway through the lap before finishing in 48.17 seconds on a track still wet from earlier rain showers.

Kenya's Chebet completes golden double

Kenya's Beatrice Chebet surged to the Olympic women’s 10,000 metres gold medal in 30 minutes 43.25 seconds on Friday to add to her 5,000 title at the Games.

Italian Nadia Battocletti earned sweet redemption after just missing the podium in the 5,000m, taking silver in 30:43.35, and Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan failed to defend her Tokyo crown as she finished third in 30:44.12.

World record holder Chebet did her share of the early pacemaking and when the pack broke into a sprint with one lap remaining she pulled away on the final turn to deliver Kenya's first gold medal in the event.

Spain spoil France's soccer party

Spain secured the gold medal in the Olympic men's football tournament after substitute Sergio Camello scored twice in extra time to earn a dramatic 5-3 win over hosts France.

The win gave Spain their first Olympic men's soccer title since 1992.

Spain's Diaz unseats champion to win triple jump gold

Spain's Jordan Diaz won gold in the men's triple jump on Friday, securing his country's first ever Olympic medal in the event by defeating defending champion Pedro Pichardo of Portugal who had to settle for silver.

Pichardo and Diaz were neck-and-neck after two attempts, with Diaz jumping 17.86 metres, two centimetres ahead of his rival.

Pichardo thought he had beaten the Spaniard with his last attempt, but when the result came out — 17.81m — he threw himself to the ground in disappointment.

American Benjamin finally outmuscles Warholm to take 400m hurdles gold

Rai Benjamin finally got the better of great rival Karsten Warholm to win the Olympic 400 metres hurdles title on Friday, continuing the US' athletics gold rush and foiling the Norwegian’s bid to be the second man to retain the title.

Benjamin, second behind Warholm in the Tokyo final and twice adrift of him when collecting two silvers and a bronze in world championships, always looked in control and equalled his season’s best 46.46 seconds.

World record holder Warholm, who has struggled to hit those stratospheric levels this season, battled all the way home for silver in 47.06.

Brazilian Alison dos Santos, who took bronze in Tokyo but made Friday’s final only as a fast loser, got the bronze again in 47.26 as the three quickest men ever to run the event filled the podium.