(Reuters) - Australia's cycling queen Anna Meares is tempted by the prospect of racing at a fourth Olympics, although the 28-year-old has yet to commit to competing in 2016 after capturing the women's sprint title in London.

"I haven't made a decision," Meares told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday. "I'm enticed to go to Rio that's for sure."

ALMATY/ASHGABAT (Reuters) - Kazakhstan threw a lavish ceremony for its record-breaking Olympic athletes on Friday while Turkmenistan fired its sports minister in a reflection of the contrasting fortunes of the former Soviet Central Asian states at the London Games.

Kazakhstan's seven gold medal winners waved to crowds from open-topped limousines on a parade through the futuristic capital Astana before meeting President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled the oil-rich republic for more than two decades.

By Rex Gowar

LONDON (Reuters) - Dayron Robles of Cuba did not finish the 110 metres hurdles final in which he was defending his Olympic title and Brazilian Cesar Cielo failed to win a major 50 metres freestyle race in the pool for the first time in four years.

By Martyn Herman

HADLEIGH (Reuters) - The man from Guam did not last very long at the Olympic cross country cycling race on Sunday but Derek Horton deserved a medal just for getting himself on the startline.

By Julien Pretot

HADLEIGH, England (Reuters) - Czech Jaroslav Kulhavy made a decisive move in the closing stages to claim the Olympic men's mountain bike title on Sunday after defending champion Julien Absalon of France suffered a game-changing early puncture.

By Avril Ormsby

LONDON (Reuters) - Chris Hoy's tears of joy represented a defining moment of London 2012, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge said on Sunday.

By Julien Pretot

HADLEIGH, England (Reuters) - Czech Jaroslav Kulhavy made a decisive move in the closing stages to claim the Olympic men's mountain bike title on Sunday after defending champion Julien Absalon of France suffered a game-changing early puncture.

By Julien Pretot

HADLEIGH, England (Reuters) - Defending champion Julien Absalon of France pulled out of the Olympic men's mountain bike race after a puncture ruined his chances of clinching a third title in a row on Sunday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Defending champion Julien Absalon of France has pulled out of the Olympic mountain bike race after he crashed in the first lap, organisers said on Sunday.

Absalon, the 2004 and 2008 champion and one of the pre-race favourites, fell off his bike on a rocky descent halfway through the first of seven 4.7-kilometre laps.

By Kate Kelland

LONDON (Reuters) - If the wall of noise from an Olympic home crowd were a banned substance, Team GB would have been kicked out of the London Games on day one.

By Martyn Herman

HADLEIGH, England (Reuters) - Germany's 40-year-old Sabine Spitz proved she can still mix it with cross-country cycling's fearless young riders as she completed her Olympic medal collection on Saturday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy on Saturday celebrated the way in which Britons had embraced the Olympic Games, eulogised their gold medallists and attacked bankers for "filching our gold, our silver".

Duffy's poem, "Translating the British, 2012", appeared on the front page of the Guardian newspaper, next to a photograph of Somali-born British 10,000 metre champion Mo Farah.

By Julien Pretot

HADLEIGH, England (Reuters) - A crash in training two days ago could have ruined everything, yet Julie Bresset led from the start to earn France their first cycling gold medal at the London Olympics with a solo victory in the mountain bike on Saturday.

By Julien Pretot

HADLEIGH, England (Reuters) - Julie Bresset led from the start to earn France their first cycling gold medal at the London Olympics with an impressive solo victory in the women's mountain bike event on Saturday.

By Julien Pretot

LONDON (Reuters) - Mariana Pajon, Colombia's flag bearer at the opening ceremony, earned her country their first gold medal of the London Games when she thundered to victory in the women's BMX event on Friday.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Olympic athletes will miss their target of winning 86 medals by some way, an interior ministry paper showed on Friday, but a senior sports official said there was not necessarily a link between medals won and public funding.

After 14 days of competition, the Germans have managed to win 38 medals - 10 gold, 17 silver and 11 bronze - enough to secure them sixth place as of Friday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Mariana Pajon, Colombia's flag bearer at the opening ceremony, earned her country their first gold medal of the London Games when she thundered to victory in the women's BMX event on Friday.

Pajon, who had dominated her three semi-final runs in awe-inspiring fashion, led the eight-rider strong field after the first bend and never looked back.

By Julien Pretot

LONDON (Reuters) - Early one November morning in 2011, British cycling supremo David Brailsford sat in the Manchester velodrome feeling the situation was spinning out of control.

LONDON (Reuters) - Getting news about an injured BMX competitor from another injured BMX rider might sound odd, but it is barely surprising at an Olympic event marred by crashes.

On Friday, Brazilian Squel Stein crashed out of the women's semi-finals and was carried out of the VeloPark track on a stretcher.