Going for Gold

The gold medal was sweet revenge for what the Germans see as the tragedy of Athens four years ago.

Hinrich Romeike on Marius, Ingrid Klimke on Abraxxas, Peter Thomsen on The Ghost of Hamish, Andreas Dibowski on Butts Leon and Frank Ostholt on Mr Medicott won their country's third gold of the Beijing Olympics.

The team win --- their country's third team eventing gold after 1936 and 1988 -- was seen as just deserts after the Germans had to forfeit their gold medal at the last Olympics because of a technicality.

Then, rider Bettina Hoy -- unable to take part this time around because of an injury to her horse -- had unwittingly twice gone over the starting line. The Germans' appeal against disqualification and having the medal taken away was turned down on appeal by the Court of Arbitration in Sport.

"It's most satisfying to get back what they took from us," national team coach Hans Melzer said. "What happened in Athens gave us wings for this achievement."

Later in the day Romeike also claimed gold in the individual eventing jump-off.

First German Olympic golds in kayaking, judo

Earlier in the day, Ole Bischof won a surprise gold in the men's 81-kilogram judo final. Bischof took the lead over Asian champion Kim Jae-bum with just over a minute remaining in the final and kept on the attack until time ran out.

Only hours earlier, Alexander Grimm, 21, navigated the difficult upstream gates flawlessly to win the single kayak slalom competition for Germany. Grimm won in a combined time of 171.70 seconds.

"I can't believe it, this is just an amazing feeling. It was my dream since I was a small child," Grimm said after winning.

Germany did less well in other sports Tuesday. Hopes for a medal in gymnastics were dashed after Germany's star gymnast, Sebastian Hambuechen, unexpectedly lost his grip on the horizontal bar. That left the men's team with a fourth place finish.