And a big cheerio to the United Arab Emirates. The country that brought you such fine cricketers as Sultan Zarawani won its first ever Olympic gold medal on Tuesday.

Shaikh Ahmed Mohammed Hasher Al Maktoum was UAE's squash champion from 1985 to 2000, but it took trap shooting to get him into the Olympic Games, and yesterday he was an easy winner of the Men's Double Trap competition. It was a big occasion for India as well, with Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore finishing second to become India's first individual silver medallist ever.

See the coverage of the event by the Khaleej Times and Newindpress.com. (Note to the sub-editors of the world: the Sydney 2000 trap shoot winner was Russell Mark, not Mark Russell).

A sadder story surrounds Thailand's first female gold medallist. Udumporn Polsak won the women's 53kg competition on Sunday. Her family were celebrating with about five hundred friends at their home in the Nakhon Ratchasima province when one Worayuth Wonsantai is alleged to have pulled a gun and shot and killed Udumporn's cousin, one Boy Jonkoh.

Reports of that shooting are still a bit sketchy, but controversy is raging in Bangkok after Thai deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop took Udumporn's gold medal, flew home to Thailand with it and showed it off to the Cabinet. Bangkok's The Nation newspaper carries a report.

Bhutan's most successful Olympic campaign came to an end on Tuesday. They've only ever competed in one sport, archery (although they are also entered in taekwondo at Athens), and this time around they got two competitors into the 1/16-elimination round - the best they've ever achieved. Tashi Peljor in the men's individual, and Tschering Chhoden in the women's, are the Bhutanese heroes.

The Phelpster picked up his second and third gold medals of the Games. First he won the 200 butterfly, then the American 4x200 freestyle crew outgunned the Australians, including the Thorpallistic Missile himself. More sobering for the US is the fact that they will not have a finalist in the men's 100 freestyle for the first time, Moscow 1980 excepted, ever.

The Nightmare Team scraped through against Greece last night 77-71, but it is Spain who are looking the goods in the men's basketball. Here's a report in Spanish from El Mundo about Spain's 87-76 win over Argentina on Tuesday night.

The Matildas gained at least some revenge for the ironically-entitled Free Trade Agreement through a shock 1-1 draw with the USA. It's enough to get Australia into the final eight of the women's soccer. ESPN.com carries an Associated Press report of the game, but give more column inches to an in-house profile of Kristine Lilly, who scored the American goal in the 19th minute of the game.

NBCOlympics.com invites me to join the US Olympic Fan Club, and I could "get a phone call from Janet Evans, plus other great benefits!" Hmm.