ATHENS, Aug 29: Hicham El Guerrouj and Kelly Holmes doubled their Olympic delight on Saturday, each capturing a second gold of the Athens Games as athletics competition concluded in the Olympic Stadium.

Morocco's El Guerrouj became the first man since Paavo Nurmi in 1924 to win both the 1,500 metres and 5,000 metres at one Games with his triumph over the longer distance.

The astonishing double deprived Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia of a 10,000-metre/5,000-metre double of his own, as the 22-year-old had to settle for silver ahead of world champion Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya.

It was a further vindication for El Guerrouj, the multiple world champion who had failed in two previous heartbreaking Olympic bids for the 1500 metres. "After all that went on in Atlanta and Sydney this is a deserved reward, but also unbelievable that I can win two Olympic gold medals in the space of five days," El Guerrouj said. "This has been the most remarkable week of my life."

Britain's Holmes added the women's 1,500 metres title to the 800 metres gold she won on Monday, repeating the feat of Russia's Svetlana Masterkova who clinched the double in 1996 in Atlanta.

After relegating Russian Tatyana Tomashova to silver, Holmes sank to the track and burst into tears as she took in the enormity of her achievement. "Maybe it's fate," said Holmes, 34. "Amazing things have been happening to me here."

There was more joy for Britain as they stunned the United States in the men's 4x100 metres relay - only the second Olympic victory in the event for Britain and the first since 1912.

The British quartet anchored by Mark Lewis-Francis clocked 38.07 to edge a US team anchored by 2000 Olympic champion Maurice Greene by one-hundredth of a second, while Nigeria took the bronze.

Russia's Yuriy Borzakovskiy snatched the men's 800 metres gold medal, timing a late surge to the line to perfection. The 23-year-old Russian, who won silver at last year's world championships, powered past Denmark's Wilson Kipketer and Mbulaeni Mulaudzi of South Africa in the final few strides to win in one minute 44.45 seconds.

Mulaudzi out-dipped Kipketer to win silver in 1:44.61 to add to the world indoor gold he won in March. Kipketer, the three-time former world champion and world record holder, had to be content with bronze in 1:44.65.

Russian Yelena Slesarenko wrecked Hestrie Cloete's dream of gold by taking the women's high jump title. Slesarenko won with a clearance of 2.04 metres, then celebrated with a personal best of 2.06 before preparing for an attempt at the world record, standing at 2.09.

Cloete, the double world champion from South Africa, took silver for the second Games in a row with 2.02. Viktoriya Styopina of Ukraine took bronze. She also cleared 2.02 but lost on countback after two failures at both 1.96 and 1.99.

Cloete, the favourite, had won silver in the event four years ago, missing out on gold on count back. She celebrated her 26th birthday on Thursday during the qualifiers. Andreas Thorkildsen won the javelin gold medal to give Norway their first gold in the men's event since 1956.

The 22-year-old sent his second throw 86.50 metres, a personal best by 72cm, and was never subsequently threatened as he won his country's only medal of the athletics programme a few minutes from the end.

Vadims Vasilevskis of Latvia took silver with a personal best 84.95 with Russian world champion Sergey Makarov repeating his bronze of Sydney with 84.84. Czech Jan Zelezny, seeking a fourth successive Olympic gold and fifth successive Olympic medal, finished ninth with 80.59.

Briton Steve Backley, second in the last two Games and third in 1992, bowed out of international competition with a fourth-place throw of 84.13. American Breaux Greer, who had the best qualifying throw of 87.25 metres, struggled with a leg injury and finished 12th with 74.36.

RESULTS OF FINALS ON SATURDAY:

Women's high jump: 1. Yelena Slesarenko (Russia) 2.06 metres; 2. Hestrie Cloete (South Africa) 2.02; 3. Viktoriya Styopina (Ukraine) 2.02; 4. Amy Acuff (US) 1.99; 5. Iryna Mykhalchenko (Ukraine) 1.96; 6. Anna Chicherova (Russia) 1.96; 7. Oana Pantelimon (Romania) 1.93; 8. Monica Iagar (Romania) 1.93; 9. Inha Babakova (Ukraine) 1.93; 10. Marta Mendia (Spain) 1.93; 11. Blanka Vlasic (Croatia) 1.89; 12. Tia Hellebaut (Belgium) 1.85.

Women's 1500 metres: 1. Kelly Holmes (Britain) three minutes 57.90 seconds; 2. Tatyana Tomashova (Russia) 3:58.12; 3. Maria Cioncan (Romania) 3:58.39; 4. Natalya Yevdokimova (Russia) 3:59.05; 5. Daniela Yordanova (Bulgaria) 3:59.10; 6. Lidia Chojecka (Poland) 3:59.27; 7. Anna Jakubczak (Poland) 4:00.15; 8. Elvan Abeylegesse (Turkey) 4:00.67; 9. Carmen Douma-Hussar (Canada) 4:02.31; 10. Natalia Rodriguez (Spain) 4:03.01; 11. Olga Yegorova (Russia) 4:05.65; 12. Hasna Benhassi (Morocco) 4:12.90.

Men's javelin: 1. Andreas Thorkildsen (Norway) 86.50 metres; 2. Vadims Vasilevskis (Latvia) 84.95; 3. Sergey Makarov (Russia) 84.84; 4. Steve Backley (Britain) 84.13; 5. Alexandr Ivanov (Russia) 83.31; 6. Andrus Varnik (Estonia) 83.25; 7. Eriks Rags (Latvia) 83.14; 8. Tero Pitkamaki (Finland) 83.01; 9. Jan Zelezny (Czech Republic) 80.59; 10. Matti Narhi (Finland) 80.28; 11. Esko Mikkola (Finland) 79.43; 12. Breaux Greer (US) 74.36.

Men's 800 metres: 1. Yuriy Borzakovskiy (Russia) one minute 44.45 seconds; 2. Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (South Africa) 1:44.61; 3. Wilson Kipketer (Denmark) 1:44.65; 4. Mouhssin Chehibi (Morocco) 1:45.16; 5. Wilfred Bungei (Kenya) 1:45.31; 6. Hezekiel Sepeng (South Africa) 1:45.53; 7. Djabir Said Guerni (Algeria) 1:45.61; 8. Ismail Ahmed Ismail (Sudan) 1:52.49.

Men's 5000 metres: 1. Hicham El Guerrouj (Morocco) 13 minutes 14.39 seconds; 2. Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia) 13:14.59; 3. Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya) 13:15.10; 4. Gebre Egziabher Gebremariam (Ethiopia) 13:15.35; 5. Dejene Berhanu (Ethiopia) 13:16.92; 6. John Kibowen (Kenya) 13:18.24; 7. Zersenay Tadesse (Eritrea) 13:24.31; 8. Craig Mottram (Australia) 13:25.70; 9. Hicham Bellani (Morocco) 13:31.81; 10. Ali Saidi Sief (Algeria) 13:32.57; 11. Tim Broe (US) 13:33.06; 12. Alistair Ian Cragg (Ireland) 13:43.06; 13. Abderrahim Goumri (Morocco) 13:47.27; 14. Samir Moussaoui (Algeria) 14:02.01. Abraham Chebii (Kenya) did not finish.

Men's 4x100 metres relay: Britain 38.07 seconds (Darren Campbell, Devonish, Lewis-Francis, Gardener); 2. United States 38.08 (Greene, Crawford, Gatlin, Miller); 3. Nigeria 38.23 (Deji, Egbele, Emedolu, Fasuba); 4. Japan 38.49 (Asahara, Suetsugu, Takahira, Tsuchie); 5. Poland 38.54 (Chyla, Jedrusinski, Tulin, Urbas); 6. Australia 38.56 (di Bella, Basil, Johnson, Ross); 7. Trinidad & Tobago 38.60 (Boldon, Alexander, Burns, Brown)38.60; 8. Brazil 38.67 (De Lima, Ribeiro, Silva, Sousa).

Women's 4x400 metres relay: 1. United States three minutes 19.01 seconds (Deedee Trotter/Monique Henderson/Sanya Richards/Monique Hennagan); 2. Russia 3:20.16 (Olesya Krasnomovets/Natalya Nazarova/Olesya Zykina/Natalya Antyukh); 3. Jamaica 3:22.00 (Novlene Williams/Michelle Burgher/Nadia Davy/Sandie Richards); 4. Britain 3:25.12 (Donna Fraser/Catherine Murphy/Christine Ohuruogu/Lee Mcconnell); 5. Poland 3:25.22(Zuzanna Radecka/Monika Bejnar/Malgorzata Pskit/Grazyna Prokopek); 6. Romania 3:26.81 (Angela Morosanu/Alina Rapanu/Maria Rus/Ionela Tirlea-Manolache); 7. India 3:28.51 (Satti Geetha/K. Mathews Beenamol/Chitra K. Soman/Rajwinder Kaur); 8. Greece 3:45.70 (Hariklia Bouda/Hrisoula Goudenoudi/Dimitra Dova/Fani Halkia).

Men's 4x400 metres relay: 1. United States two minutes 55.91 seconds (Otis Harris/ Derrick Brew/Jeremy Wariner/Darold Williamson); 2. Australia 3:00.60 (John Steffensen/Mark Ormrod/Patrick Dwyer/Clinton Hill); 3. Nigeria 3:00.90 (James Godday/Musa Audu/Saul Weigopwa/Enefiok Udo Obong) 4. Japan 3:00.99 (Yuki Yamaguchi/Jun Osakada/Tomohiro Itoh/ Mitsuhiro Sato); 5. Britain 3:01.07 (Timothey Benjamin/Sean Baldock/Malachi Davis/ Matthew Elias); 6. Bahamas 3:01.88 (Nathaniel Mckinney/Aaron Cleare/Andrae Williams/Christopher Brown); 7. Germany 3:02.22 (Ingo Schultz/Kamghe Gaba/Ruwen Faller/Bastian Swillims) 8. Botswana 3:02.49 (Johnson Kubisa/Calfornia Molefe/Gaolesiela Salang/Kagiso Kilego). -Agencies