LONDON () - Taoufik Makhloufi ran a scorching last lap to take gold for Algeria in the Olympic 1,500 metres on Tuesday and attributed his victory to "the will of God", a day after dropping out of an 800m heat with what his team said was a knee injury. On another cold, rainy night in the Olympic stadium, Australia's Sally Pearson won the women's 100m hurdles by two-hundredths of a second from defending champion Dawn Harper of the United States. Unsure of the outcome, she let out a scream of delight when the scoreboard confirmed her victory. Shaggy-haired Ivan Ukhov won gold in the men's high jump for Russia, which also celebrated victories in diving and synchronized swimming as it edged up to fifth in the medals table after a disappointing Games so far. The man with one of the longest names at the Games showed that he was also the strongest: Iranian Behdad Salimikordasiabi - Salimi for short - took gold in the superheavyweight class of the weightlifting. Iran took the silver for good measure, along with a wrestling gold. And the Islamic state captured its first ever athletics medal when Ehsan Hadadi hurled the discus 68.18 meters to win silver. He fell just 9 cm short of German winner Robert Harting, who delighted the crowd with a lap of honor in which he vaulted over the hurdles laid out for the women's 100m race. Elsewhere on Day 11 of competition in London, Italy's Josefa Idem, the only woman to compete in eight Olympics, advanced to the kayak final at the age of 47, powering past a field of 20- and 30-year-olds. Two brothers won gold and bronze for Britain in the triathlon, adding to the host nation's biggest medal tally for 104 years, and four medals were awarded for the first time in an Olympic cycling race when a photo finish could not separate the third and fourth finishers from the Netherlands and New Zealand. Makhloufi's victory was controversial as it came just a day after he was temporarily disqualified for not trying in his 800m heat - and then reinstated when his team said he had a knee injury and had the decision overturned on medical grounds. Evidence provided by two doctors confirmed "the athlete suffered from a painful injury, which however, with appropriate treatment, may allow him to compete in 24 hours." Makhloufi broke away on the back straight of the final lap and accelerated around the last bend to win comfortably from American Leonel Manzano and Moroccan Abdalaati Iguider. "It's the will of God. Yesterday I was out, today I'm in," Mahkloufi told reporters. "This is a gift for the Algerian people and for the whole of the Arabic world." Injury also struck China's Liu Xiang, who left the Olympic stadium in a wheelchair after hitting the first barrier in a 110 meter hurdles heat. Liu suffered a cruel echo of his early exit from Beijing four years ago, and indications were that it was the same Achilles injury that led to his fall on a cool, cloudy morning in London. China's first male gold medalist on the Olympic track after triumphing in 2004, Liu remains his country's most popular sportsman alongside former basketball player Yao Ming. Fellow athletes expressed their sympathy. "This is really sad for any athlete," Jamaican Usain Bolt told reporters. Fans back in China quickly took to social networking websites to voice their dismay. "My heart is broken," wrote one on Chinese microblogging service Sina Weibo. At the opposite end of sport's emotional spectrum, there was jubilation in Grenada, whose prime minister gave everyone the afternoon off work to celebrate 19-year-old Kirani James' gold in Monday night's men's 400 meters. The Caribbean island nation of 110,000 people had never won an Olympic medal before.
