ALLAN THE MAN

The London Olympics 2012 Closing Ceremony kicked off with a typically British mass singalong to bring the curtain down on an Olympic Games that have retained the feelgood factor throughout.

The show in the Olympic Stadium, entitled "A Symphony of British Music", is a celebration of Britain's pop prowess, featuring some of the kingdom's best-known acts like the Spice Girls, Muse and George Michael.

The pumped-up 80,000-strong crowd wasted no time getting into the party atmosphere, sending Mexican waves around the bowl as they eagerly waited in anticipation for the show to start.

In a hardly-kept closing ceremony secret, the Spice Girls played not one, but two songs from their whirlwind two-album career in the late '90s and early '00s.

Annie Lennox gave the 80,000-strong crowd a bit of "Little Bird" after riding in aboard a death galleon.

As is now custom, the final medal of the Olympics was awarded during the closing ceremony, with men's marathon winner Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda picking up the gold medal he secured earlier in the day.

LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 – The United States Dream Team of NBA stars captured their second successive Olympic men’s basketball gold medal and the 14th overall for America by beating Spain 107-100 in Sunday’s final.

Running unbeaten through the tournament as they did in 2008 when they also beat Spain in the final, the US multi-millionaire lineup of NBA elite claimed their fifth crown in the past six Olympics.

“I’m on cloud nine. It’s such a huge honour,” US star Kobe Bryant said after his final Olympic bow.

“It’s hard work and perseverance. I feel very fortunate to go to the Olympics twice and give it a go. I feel very lucky. It was nice.”

The Americans improved to 62-1 since revamping the national team program after settling for Olympic bronze in 2004.

“It’s a relief because if we don’t come back winners it’s a disaster,” US assistant coach Mike D’Antoni said.

But reigning European champion Spain, routed by the US NBA stars in a pre-Olympic exhibition game last month in Barcelona, stayed with the defending champions to the very end, keeping within reach until the final minutes.

LONDON OLYMPICS 2012: Men's Basketball Gold Medal Match 'USA vs Spain'.

The Americans now take on their toughest competition of the Games with a gold-medal final game against Spain (5-2). Both Pau and Marc Gasol have been making opponents suffer inside, while Jose Calderon continues to orchestrate the efficient offense.

After losing its first two games, Spain has won five consecutive games and come into this contest fresh off of a come-from-behind victory over Russia. Pau Gasol led the way in the victory with 16 points and 12 rebounds in what was Spain's most resilient victory of the Games.

Meanwhile, the United States are playing like a team that won't even be contested in the final. They outright embarrassed Argentina 109-83 after beating them by six points prior to the start of the Games.

Kevin Durant leads the way for Team USA with 18 points per game, and has been the outright star for this team throughout the Games. His play has propelled his teammates and the shooting has been jaw-dropping from the Thunder talent.

After both Spain and the United States have made their promising runs, it will all come down to this one surefire thriller in London.

WATCH LIVE STREAMING OF 'USA vs SPAIN' MATCH BELOW:

*the match will start 3:00 PM London / 10:00 PM Manila (August 12, 2012)

The Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games will be titled ‘A Symphony of British Music’, to celebrate the fact that music has been one of Britain’s strongest cultural exports over the last 50 years. The worldwide broadcast of the Ceremony will start at 9pm and feature more than 4,100 performers, including 3,500 adult volunteers and 380 schoolchildren from the six east London Host Boroughs.

LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 – Kevin Durant scored 19 points and LeBron James added 18 to lead the United States team of NBA stars over Argentina 109-83 on Friday and into the Olympic men’s basketball gold medal final against Spain.

The Americans booked a rematch of the 2008 Olympic final and reached the gold medal game for the 15th time in 17 attempts, having missed out in 1988 and 2004 and skipped the 1980 Moscow Olympics in a boycott.

The US men, who also had 18 points from Carmelo Anthony, seek their 14th gold medal against a Spanish side filled with NBA standouts, one that battled the US to the end before falling 118-107 in the 2008 Beijing final.

Spain defeated Russia 67-59 in Friday’s other semi-final. Argentina will play Russia on Sunday for the bronze medal.

Argentina ousted the US squad in a 2004 Athens Olympics semi-final on the way to capturing gold but the Americans returned the favour in Beijing.

The US team improved to 61-1 since settling from bronze at the 2004 Olympics and revamping the national team program with Mike Krzyzewski as coach.

The US NBA multi-millionaires had defeated Argentina 126-97 in a preliminary group match four days earlier, a physical contest in which Carmelo Anthony was hit in the groin while shooting by Argentina’s Facundo Campazzo.

LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 - Team USA (6-0) has breezed through the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. However, they'll have a real challenge going up against an Argentina team (4-2) that gave them trouble in an exhibition game back in July in the semifinals of the tournament.

The Americans seemed to figure the Argentinians out in the group stage, as the stars and stripes ripped off a huge second half and beat their opponent 126-97.

Should Argentina somehow figure out a way to rekindle the passion and skill they displayed in the exhibition game, this game could be a lot closer than their second meeting of the year.

Let’s take a look at when and where to watch this game, who you should keep an eye on and make a prediction on the outcome.

WATCH 'USA vs ARGENTINA' LIVE STREAMING BELOW:

*game will start 9:00 PM (London) 4:00 PM (USA)

LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (Men's Basketball) – Kobe Bryant scored 20 points to lead the United States over a stubborn Australia squad 119-86 on Wednesday and advance the Americans into a Friday semi-final against Argentina.

Bryant sank three 3-pointers in a row within 31 seconds in the fourth quarter to seal the Boomers’ fate, improving the NBA Dream Team to 14-0 over Australia in global tournaments.

LeBron James added 11 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists while Deron Williams had 18 points and Carmelo Anthony scored 17.

Reigning European champion Spain, which lost to the US NBA squad in the 2008 Beijing final, will face Russia in the other semi-final.

Argentina defeated a set of US NBA stars in the 2004 Olympic semi-finals, ending Dream Team gold domination that began in 1992, but a revamped US squad avenged that loss with a triumph in the 2008 Beijing Olympic semi-finals.

LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 – Kevin Durant scored 28 points and the US NBA Dream Team defeated Argentina 126-97 on Monday to remain undefeated and book an Olympic quarter-final date Wednesday against Australia.

The result completed the entire medal playoff pairings, which will see the Americans face Argentina or Spain in the semi-finals if they defeat the Aussie Boomers, who knocked Russia from the ranks of the unbeaten earlier on Monday.

In the other half of the playoff bracket, reigning European champion Spain will face France in one quarter-final while Russia will meet Lithuania in the other. Semi-finals are on Friday with gold and bronze medal games on Sunday.

The Americans led by only 60-59 at half-time but seized command from the start of the third quarter, which began with LeBron James scoring the first seven US points to ignite a 19-7 run by the US NBA stars.

LONDON – LeBron James silenced stubborn Lithuania to lift the unbeaten US NBA Dream Team into the Olympic medal playoffs on Saturday while Russia edged Spain to secure a top seeding in next week’s quarter-finals.

James, seeking his second gold medal in his third Olympic appearance, scored nine of his 20 points in a 12-2 US run in the final minutes as the Americans beat Lithuania 99-94, improving to 58-1 since taking Olympic bronze in 2004.

“I feel like it was my time to step up offensively,” James said. “I’ve been doing everything else, which I’m OK with. I’m here to do the little things. I can also score. I’m happy I was able to make a few buckets down the stretch.”

Just as “King James” took command for the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals and won his first league crown, he stepped up to the Olympic spotlight and hoisted a multi-millionaire lineup into the quarter-finals as they try to defend gold.

Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova will battle it out for Olympic gold on Saturday afternoon. 

Going into the London 2012 Olympics, Serena and Sharapova were the only players in the field who have achieved the legendary career Grand Slam (Serena achieved the feat back in 2002 with Sharapova completing the set in June). As such it seems only right that they're battling it out in the final with the winner achieving the career Golden Grand Slam.

Steffi Graf (who won all four slams and Olympic gold back in 1988) is the only other player to have managed this. 

Serena will be strong favourite to win her first singles gold medal (she's won two doubles golds with her sister Venus) given her progress through the draw so far this week. The American has yet to concede more than three games in a set and she's destroyed Vera Zvonareva, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka in success. Given how good those players are (they've all reached Grand Slam finals), for Serena to beat them all dropping just 7 games across the three matches, is simply remarkable.

LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 – The United States team of NBA stars shattered a host of records, including most points in a single Olympic men’s basketball game, by defeating Nigeria 156-73 on Thursday in a preliminary round game.

Carmelo Anthony scored a game-high 37 points on 10-of-12 shooting from 3-point range, all of those figures setting US Olympic team records.

The old Olympic record for points by a team in one game was set by Brazil in 1988 at Seoul in a 138-85 preliminary round triumph over Egypt. Brazilians also had the prior mark from a 137-64 victory over India in 1980 at Moscow.

The Americans also eclipsed their own Olympic team record for points in a game, set in a 133-70 victory over China in 1996 at Atlanta.

Watch the Boxing Journey of Filipino Boxer Mark Barriga in the London Olympics 2012. 

London, Great Britain, 1 August 2012 - Philippines' new boxing sensation, two-time Sydney Jackson Memorial Tournament winner Mark Anthony Barriga is really making a name for himself after defeating world class rivals in recent months and impressing at the London 2012 Olympic Games. 

The Filipino Light Flyweight (46-49kg) fighter was part of the AIBA Road to London Program where he trained hard and amazed his various sparring partners with his tenacity and now he is ready to challenge the current order and bid for an Olympic medal. 

His sensational victory against the promising Italian Manuel Fabrizio Cappai, has made the rest of the competition stand up and take notice of his talent. He now meets Kazakhstan's Asian Games silver medallist Birzhan Zhakypov with a quarter-final place at stake. 

Watch Mark Barriga Fights Below:

LONDON – Kevin Durant scored 22 points to lead the United States team of NBA stars over France 98-71 on Sunday in their opening game of the Olympic men’s basketball tournament.

Durant, the reigning NBA scoring champion, produced two electrifying back-to-back slam dunks in the early minutes — one off a half-court-length pass from LeBron James in a game that became a romp after the opening quarter.

The American NBA stars greeted US First Lady Michelle Obama after the game, each player and coach receving a hug in congratulation for the victory.

The Americans improved to 55-1 in international play since revamping their program after settling for a shocking bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Kevin Love added 14 points for the NBA multi-millionaire squad while Kobe Bryant had 10 points and James and Carmelo Anthony each scored nine.

It also featured the history of British music with some of the most memorable songs and music videos and clips shown on stage and on the screen.

MADRID - Olympic champion Rafael Nadal's withdrawal from the London Games because of injury deprived the tournament of one of its biggest attractions and left Spain reeling on Thursday.

The gold medal winner in Beijing four years ago has failed to recover from a knee problem, and also misses out on the honour of carrying his nation's flag at the opening ceremony.

The Spanish tennis federation (RFET) said Feliciano Lopez would be his replacement in the singles while the country's Olympic committee (COE) said a meeting on Friday would decide on a replacement flag bearer for the July 27th parade.

"I'm not in a condition to be able to compete," Nadal, 26, said in a statement. "It's one of the saddest moments of my career."

Nadal won a record seventh French Open title in June but crashed out in the second round at Wimbledon in a massive upset against lowly ranked Czech Lukas Rosol.

And this competition will be graced by different athletes and delegates from different country around the world including The Philippines. This year, 11 Pinoy Athletes will fly to London to compete for 2012 London Olympics and hopefully, they could bring home the first Olympic Gold Medal of the Philippines.

Here are the 11 Pinoy Olympians for 2012 London Olympics:

Jasmine Alkhaldi, 19 years old from Paranaque City will compete in Swimming at 100 M Freestyle Category. Her Achievements are: (A) Gold Medalist in 2011 SOUTHEAST ASIAN AGE GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS 3 (B) BEST TIME IN THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (3) Bronze Medalist - 2010 SINGAPORE NATIONAL AGE GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS 2.
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Also in Swimming at 200 M Freestyle Category is Jessie Khing Lacuna. He is 18 years old from Bulacan. His Achievements are: (A) 6 GOLD MEDALS IN THE 2ND PHILIPPINE NATIONAL GAMES (B) BEST TIME IN THE 2011 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS.

In Athletics, Marestella Torres, 32 years old from Negros Oriental will compete in Long Jump Women Category. Her Achievements are: (A) 4-TIME SOUTHEAST ASIAN GAMES LONG JUMP DEFENDING CHAMPION (B) 2009 ASIAN ATHLETICS LONG JUMP CHAMPION (C) COMPETED IN THE 2008 BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES.