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.

LONDON (Reuters) - Czech military officer David Svoboda reclaimed top spot on the leaderboard after the riding event of the modern pentathlon on Saturday, edging four points ahead of Cao Zhongrong of China as they enter the final combined shoot and run event.

Svoboda, who had topped the leaderboard after fencing but struggled in his swimming heat, managed a cleaner run of the 12 jumps in Greenwich Park than Cao, knocking down three rails to take his total score after the first three events to 3,460.

By Mark Trevelyan

LONDON (Reuters) - A series of Russian disappointments at the London Olympic Games have prompted a defensive response from sporting officials, the resignations of at least two coaches and a mock-epic poem lamenting the cruel vicissitudes of sport.

LONDON (Reuters) - China's Cao Zhongrong moved to the top of the leaderboard on Saturday after a closely fought swimming event in the modern pentathlon, which is celebrating its 100th birthday at the London Games.

Cao, whose favourite events are the fencing and riding, swam the 200 metres freestyle in one minute 58.93 seconds, the third fastest time in the Aquatics Pool and enough, after his second place in the earlier fencing event, to leapfrog David Svoboda into first with 2,376 points.

By Paul Casciato

LONDON (Reuters) - Trampolinists whistle, tennis players grunt and Chinese women's superheavyweight weightlifting champion Zhou Lulu screams "Fung shong!"

By Daniel Bases

LONDON (Reuters) - Italy's success on the fencing piste with a leading seven medals in the 2012 Olympic Games masks an erosion of the sport's European domination as some unlikely nations also captured sporting glory.

By Daniel Bases

LONDON (Reuters) - It seems the British may have no one to blame but themselves for the thrashing Italy gave them - and the rest of the world - in the women's team foil competition in the London Olympic Games.

By Daniel Bases

LONDON (Reuters) - Italy's success on the fencing piste with a leading seven medals in the 2012 Olympic Games masks an erosion of the sport's European domination as some unlikely nations also captured sporting glory.

By Daniel Bases

LONDON (Reuters) - OK, so it's full of brooding Frenchmen and Italian drama queens, but no ordinary spectator is ever going to 'get' a sport decided by the flash of a blade almost invisible to the naked eye - right?

By Daniel Bases

LONDON (Reuters) - Italy beat Japan to win the men's team foil gold on Sunday, narrowly avoiding being pushed aside by upstart South Korea as the top Olympic fencing nation.

By Daniel Bases

LONDON (Reuters) - China fought off early jitters and caution to grind down South Korea to take gold in the women's team epee final on Saturday.

By Daniel Bases

LONDON (Reuters) - China fought off early jitters and caution to grind down South Korea to take gold in the women's team epee final on Saturday.

By Daniel Bases

LONDON (Reuters) - Surprise package South Korea won their first Olympic men's team sabre gold by beating Romania 45-26 on Friday with the silver medal winners also having unexpectedly reached the final.

By Daniel Bases

LONDON (Reuters) - Shin A Lam, the South Korean fencer who refused to leave the field of play after a timing problem shattered her Olympic dream, was just a split second away from either gold or silver.

By Daniel Bases

LONDON (Reuters) - Surprise package South Korea won their first ever Olympic team gold in men's sabre by beating Romania 45-26 on Friday with the silver medal winners also having unexpectedly reached the final.