Douglas wins wonderful individual gymnastics

 United States as Douglas wins wonderful individual gymnastics gold

Gabrielle Douglas boldly triumphed in the women's individual gymnastics final on Thursday to give the United States their third consecutive Olympic female champion.

The 16-year-old from Virginia finished ahead of Russia's Viktoria Komova at the North Greenwich Arena, while Komova's team-mate Aliya Mustafina took the bronze medal.

Special win: Gabrielle Douglas performs on the beam on Thursday

Mustafina and America's Alexandra Raisman finished level on 59.566 points in third position, but Mustafina won the bronze on tie-breaking criteria.

Komova had been seeking revenge after the USA beat Russia to the gold medal in the team event, but Douglas produced a near-faultless performance to succeed compatriots Carly Patterson and Nastia Liukin as the women's Olympic champion.

She also became the first black gymnast to win the individual women's Olympic title.

Brilliant: Douglas performs on the balance beam during the final

'It kinda hasn't sunk in yet. But it will though,' she said. 'A lot was going through my mind. I was just thinking that all the hard work had paid off. I was speechless, just shedding tears of joy and waving to the crowd.'

It is Douglas' second gold medal at the London Games, after her role in the Americans' team success.

Douglas took the lead after the vault and held on to top spot despite a strong uneven bars routine from world champion Komova, before closing out victory with a remarkably composed display on the floor.

Look what I've got: Douglas with her gold medal, with Ru

Angola 31 Great Britain 25: Four defeat handball

Great Britain women's tough introduction to the Olympic Games continued as they slumped to a fourth successive Group A defeat at the hands of Angola, ending any faint hopes of progressing to the quarter-finals.

Losses to Montenegro, Russia and Brazil in their opening three matches were par for the course, after only forming six years ago, but they went into the day's opening encounter at the Copper Box with realistic hopes of beating the African champions, having done exactly that in this arena in November's test event.

But Angola have improved considerably since then and Team GB were unable to replicate their performance of nine months ago, though they did produce a display to be proud of in parts, with nine-goal Marie Gerbron top-scoring.

Handed a beating: Angola romped to victory over Team GB in the handball, the hosts' fourth defeat

However, it was sloppy play in the attacking third that really cost Team GB, with too many missed chances and handling errors preventing them from recording a historic Olympic win.

With the track and field events and cycling now under way in the Olympic Stadium and Velodrome, Team GB will have been keen to keep handball in the headlines after the unprecedented exposure it received in the first week of London 2012.

And Jesper Holmris' side enjoyed a solid start, with two Lynn McCafferty goals and a Holly Lam-Moores fast break giving the crowd reason to cheer, while keeping the deficit down to 5-4 after the opening 10 minutes.

But a familiar story was unfolding as for all their impressive defensive work, with goalkeeper Sarah Hargreaves again in good form, they could not make it pay at the other end due to several misplaced passes and glaring misses.

No was past: Angola proved to be a far harder challenge than had been expected by Team GB

That allowed Angola to score five of the next six goals to open up what was looking like an already

Spain 79 Great Britain 78 BASKETBAL

Great Britain suffered yet another hard-luck loss against world No 2 Spain but came close than ever before at the London Olympics.

Britain overcame foul trouble for key duo Luol Deng and Pops Mensah-Bonsu to twice be two points down with a chance to tie in the final minute, but Spain's poise at the free throw line kept them in front and what would have been the greatest victory in the history of the modern British Basketball programme slipped away.

Spain had jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead on Rudy Fernandez's three-pointer but Joel Freeland was on a solo mission to keep them in check, scoring Britain's first eight points of the game.

High hopes: Great Britain's Pops Mensah-Bonsu tries to steal the ball from Spain's Juan-Carlos Navarro

Spain responded with some outstanding play, with Jose Calderon's great movement creating an open basket for Marc Gasol.

The younger of the Gasol brothers was then caught in a brief skirmish with Mensah-Bonsu after fouling Robert Archibald, but Britain's greater worry was Spain's growing lead.

Marc Gasol's lay-up gave them a 22-11 bulge before a fine reverse jump-shot from Deng ended the surge.

Deng inspired a fightback with a solo lay-up and great assist for Freeland, and a three-pointer from Andrew Lawrence had the score back to 35-29 shortly before half-time.

Britain fought hard to stay in touch as Spain pushed the lead to double figures early in the third.

Holding on: Fernando San Emeterio is fouled by Luol Deng

But foul trouble began to hurt them, with Mensah-Bonsu made to sit on four after making contact with Pau Gasol, who duly made it 46-35 from the line.

The real blow came late in the third when Deng, who had just made a great move to make it 50-41, was called for an offensive foul on the next drive to the basket.

What would have been a 50-43 game became 52-41 as Fernandez drained the free throws and, more importantly, Deng joined Mensah-Bonsu on the bench with four fouls.

Spain soon lost Marc Gasol for the same reason and Britain kept battling, with Drew Sullivan making it 54-45 off a great assist from Lawrence.

Heartbreaker: Team GB fell to their third consecutive narrow defeat