Neymar’s nerves of steel hand Brazil first football gold

RIO DE JANEIRO: Neymar scored a brilliant goal and the decisive shootout penalty as Brazil buried their World Cup demons by beating Germany in the Olympic football final on Sunday morning.

The 5-4 penalty win was close. Neymar and his teammates all sank to their knees, many in uncontrollable tears at the centrepiece of a day of 30 gold medals here.

Even scandal-tainted Russia won four golds while losing a silver from 2012 because of another doping case.But Brazil came to a standstill because of Neymar and football.

Supermarket checkout clerks watched the match on their mobile phones, taxi drivers gathered around any available screen to see the Selecao take on Germany — and seek revenge for a 7-1 humiliation by their opponents in a World Cup semi-final two years ago.

In front of 78,000 people — the biggest crowd of the Rio Olympics — Neymar twisted a free-kick past German goalkeeper Timo Horn to give Brazil a first-half lead.

German captain Max Meyer swept home Jeremy Toljan’s cross to equalise and then taunted the Maracana stadium crowd by kissing the number seven on his shirt.

The game went through extra time and eight penalties in deadlock until Germany’s Nils Petersen missed his spot kick.

Barcelona star Neymar rifled the final penalty into the corner after a half-faint and a whole nation erupted in celebration.

Victory may not get Brazil into the top 10 of the Olympic medals table, but it was the one gold the country wanted.

Red-hot favourite Eliud Kipchoge stormed to a runaway gold medal in a wet men’s marathon.

The Kenyan broke away from his rivals at the 35km mark and romped home to win in a time of two hours, eight minutes, 44 seconds, more than a minute quicker than Ethiopia’s Feyisa Lilesa, who took silver.

American Galen Rupp took bronze a further 11 seconds back.

In the shadow of the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue, poking through the rain clouds from high above the city, Kipchoge produced a virtuoso performance as he added gold to the 5,000m silver he won in Beijing in 2008 and his bronze from Athens 2004.

It was a seventh victory in eight marathons for the 31-year-old phenomenon, who won the London Marathon for the second year running in April, coming within eight seconds of Dennis Kimetto’s world record of 2:02:57.

A morning downpour put paid to any thoughts of a world record as 155 runners representing 80 countries splashed around the course snaking through the heart of Rio’s historic centre in conditions miles removed from the holiday brochures of sun-kissed Rio.

Tokyo champion Lilesa looked in the mood to push Kipchoge while Rupp kept pace after the trio dropped Ethiopian Lemi Berhanu just after the halfway point.

But Kipchoge proved too strong, coming home to loud roars along the home straight of the Sambadrome, home of Rio’s famed carnival, before dropping to his knees and crossing himself in celebration.

Russia came to Rio under a doping scandal shadow and missing its key track and field stars. But it snared four golds — in women’s handball, team rhythmic gymnastics, modern pentathlon and freestyle wrestling — to take its total to 17 golds in all and fourth place in the overall table.

China’s Chen Long inflicted more Olympic heartache on Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei with a straight games win for gold in the men’s badminton singles final.

Lee, beaten in the past two Olympic finals by Lin Dan, disposed of his Chinese nemesis in the semis here but couldn’t get past Chen for a gold that would have been Malaysia’s first in any sport.

In boxing, Cuban men captured two golds — Arlen Lopez took the middleweight title and Robeisy Ramirez claimed bantamweight.

Britain’s Nicola Adams became the first woman to retain an Olympic boxing title in the flyweight division.

The United States, already on 40 golds and past 1,000 golds in their overall history, are certain to top the table.

Britain with 26 golds are hoping to hold off China, just two behind.