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Cooke, fresh from victory in the road race, lines up with team-mate Emma Pooley at 0430 BST, while GB's Steve Cummings starts the men's race at 0630.American Michael Phelps bids for his fourth and fifth golds in the 200m butterfly and 4x200m freestyle relay.In the gymnastics, China and the US are favourites for the women's team title.The Chinese won the 2006 world championship in Denmark but the United States came out on top by less than a point in Germany a year later.Led by 16-year-old Shawn Johnson the US will attempt to repeat that achievement and claim one of 17 golds up for grabs on Wednesday.The hosts came out on top in qualifying with a combined total of 248.275 points as the US earned 246.800, Russia 244.400 and reigning champions Romania finished a distant fourth.Struggling for form, the Romanians look a shadow of the team that won four of the six women's golds on offer at the 2004 Athens Olympics.In the women's time trial, both Cooke and Pooley are considered to have an outside chance of a medal in the 15-mile race, a single lap of the Juyongguan circuit.Stephanie RiceRice heads a world class field in the women's 200m individual medleyHanka Kupfernagel of Germany goes into the race as favourite but Pooley has been training specifically for this event."I'm confident for both of them," said the women's road manager Julian Winn. "Emma has been working hard and has said since the start of the year this would be her target."Nicole has just achieved an amazing thing which could be distracting but, on the other hand, it could also have the effect of really firing her up."Phelps, meanwhile, returns to the Water Cube after claiming gold in the 400m individual medley, 4x100m freestyle relay and men's 200m freestyle.The 23-year-old hopes to defend his 200m butterfly title and then takes part in the 4x200m relay as the defending champions the US start as favourites ahead of Australia, Canada and Italy.But the most eagerly anticipated event in the pool on day five sees Katie Hoff, Olympic record holder Kirsty Coventry, world record holder Stephanie Rice and Natalie Coughlin battle it out in the women's 200m individual medley final.Britain's best hope for a medal comes when Caitlin McClatchey contests the women's 200m freestyle at 0311 BST.McClatchey qualified after finishing third in her semi-final, clocking a time of 1:57.73 behind Italy's Federica Pellegrini and Camelia Alina Potec of Romania.World and Olympic record holder Pellegrini will start as favourite in lane three.Team GB's men's coxless fourTeam GB's men's coxless four are bidding to win a third consecutive goldAlso in action are Nicholas Robinson-Baker and Ben Swain, the British pair diving first in the men's synchronised 3m springboard final, which gets under way at 0730 BST.It is a big day of semi-finals on the Shunyi rowing lake as Team GB's flagship boat, the men's coxless four, continue their quest for a third consecutive Olympic gold.Alan Campbell tests himself against world record holder Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand in the men's single sculls and the pairing of Matthew Wells and Stephen Rowbotham return to the water in the men's double sculls.Having finished second in their heat, Team GB's women's eight have one last chance to qualify for the final through the repechage.In the fencing hall Britain's Richard Kruse takes on Virgil Saliscan of Romania in the men's individual foil round of 32.Kruse has been GB's number one for the last four years and finished eighth in Athens four years ago - the best Olympic show by a GB fencer since Tokyo in 1964.Other champions will be crowned in shooting, weightlifting, wrestling and judo.Baseball opens what could be its final Olympic competition with defending champion Cuba playing Japan and the United States facing South Korea.

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For a country that pretends not to care about the Olympics, India certainly threw itself a heck of a party the night of Aug. 11, when a 25-year-old with a bad back and steady aim won India's first individual gold medal. TV channels provided wall-to-wall coverage, families danced in the streets, and political leaders tried to outdo each other in handing out hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money.Here, give him a prize of $60,000, said India's richest sports body, the Board of Control of Cricket in India, which had nothing to do with the 10-meter air rifle event in which Abhinav Bindra won the gold. Here, said India's Railways Minister, handing out a free lifetime railway pass to Bindra, whose family is privileged enough that it's doubtful he will ever take a train.If only all that support had come before the event. Every four years when the Olympics come around, India hangs its head in shame, with public finger-pointing and consternation that a nation of a billion people cannot find one athlete to bring home a little piece of gold. The country's sports stadiums are crumbling relics from the 1950s and '60s, with training facilities so ancient that athletes beg for opportunities to train overseas. Because of political problems among the country's sports federations, athletes have to cobble together money for training regimens from as many as nine different organizations."I think the whole question is how does everything function," says Bindra, speaking with BusinessWeek from Beijing. "In today's day and age, things have to be run professionally, and unfortunately, that's not how things are done."Finally, Someone to Cheer forSo it's no surprise that when Bindra, who is now the toast of the nation, ran out of bullets for practice he had to turn to an unlikely source for help: Lakshmi Mittal, one of the richest men in the world and another of India's celebrated sons. Mittal, who is chairman of ArcelorMittal (MT), the world's largest steelmaker, left India many decades ago, but maintains a keen interest in the country. At sporting events—like the 2004 Olympics in Athens—he and his family found themselves cheering for teams picked at random because no Indians had even managed to make it past the qualifiers.But at the 2005 Wimbledon tennis tournament, he met India's Mahesh Bhupathi, a player who has had considerable success in mixed doubles. Bhupathi and a friend convinced Mittal to put up $10 million to help support a few athletes with an eye toward the London Olympics in 2012, when the Games will be held in Mittal's backyard—he lives in Kensington and can sometimes be seen riding a bicycle in Hyde Park. Regarding Bindra's Beijing triumph, "I am absolutely delighted," says Mittal, whose Mittal Champions Trust got Bindra a physical therapist, a mental trainer, and on that day when the bullets ran out, cartridges to practice with. "This is a great day for Indian sports."Mittal's trust is administered by his son-in-law, Amit Bhatia, and this year it supported 14 Indian athletes at the Olympics. Many, unlike Bindra, are from less affluent backgrounds, reflecting the kind of conditions under which most of India lives. Archer Laishram Bombayla Devi, who picked up a bow and arrow after seeing people hunt in the fields near her home in rural India, said she spent two years without a coach until the trust stepped in. Now she trains with a foreign coach, for which the trust pays, and has a structured and disciplined training process. "The trust is a lifesaver for a lot of athletes who are not getting any help," she says.Eye on the Commonwealth GamesBut the fact that India's corporate houses have to step in where the government has failed rankles some Indians. Bindra, whose family is well-off, has an MBA, runs his own company, and has extensive training facilities in his house at Chandigarh. Yet, according to Manisha Malhotra, an administrator at the Mittal Champions Trust, there was a behind-the-scenes tug-of-war between the trust and the government.While Mittal is looking forward to 2012, M.S. Gill, India's Youth Affairs & Sports Minister, and the rest of India officialdom have their sights set on 2010, when Delhi will host the Commonwealth Games. "The credit goes entirely to the player," says Gill. "We are only here to provide support." Indian officials hope the Commonwealth Games will lead to even bigger things. They have watched with some envy as Beijing hosts China's multibillion-dollar coming-out party, and with even greater envy as Chinese athletes compete neck and neck with perennial favorites like the U.S. and Russia.The goal in Delhi is simple: Just as Beijing is having its moment now, in 2010 the world's eyes will turn to India. India will be only the third developing nation to host the Commonwealth Games, after Jamaica in 1966 and Malaysia in 1998. The government has managed to earmark nearly $12 billion in infrastructure improvements for New Delhi, including sports stadiums, new highways, a brand-new metro rail system, and a new airport. If things go well, the Indian Olympic Assn. wants to bid for the 2020 Olympics to be held in Delhi.

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RAIPUR: About 500 workers of Chhattisgarh's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were arrested here on Tuesday while protesting cancellation of land allotment to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board in Jammu and Kashmir.The BJP workers, led by the party's Lok Sabha MP Sohan Potai, were arrested when they defied police warnings and headed towards Raj Bhawan to submit a memorandum to protest the land cancellation."The BJP workers were arrested for defying police warnings and forcibly trying to enter Raj Bhawan," Amit Kumar, district superintendent of police, told IANS.Before being arrested, the ruling party workers staged a sit-in at the busy Motibagh area and described the land cancellation as an "insult to the Hindu community".The annual Hindu pilgrimage to the 3,888-metre altitude cave shrine in Jammu and Kashmir has been at the heart of the land row, which appears to have driven an unprecedented communal wedge between the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley and Hindu-dominated Jammu plains.The more than five-week violent campaign over the plot that was marked for the Amarnath shrine board has claimed at least 15 lives in Jammu and Kashmir. Following protests in the Kashmir valley, the land allotment was cancelled July 1, sparking violent reactions in Jammu.

New Delhi (PTI): Batting for JMM supremo Shibu Soren as Jharkhand chief minister, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday said he should be given a chance as he can prove he is better than incumbent Madhu Koda."Soren can prove a better chief minister than the incumbent chief minister (Koda) in Jharkhand. LJP is of the opinion that he should be given a chance," Paswan told reporters here."If an Independent chief minister can rule for over one-and-a-half-year, then what is the problem if Soren gets the chair for the remaining period?" he asked.Showering praises on the tribal leader, Paswan said Soren is not a product of one day."He is one of those leaders, who are rooted to the grass root level and has a strong mass base among the tribal community," he said.Paswan, however, refused to comment on the JMM's demand for induction of its MPs in the Union cabinet.

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