It's Day 15 here in Athens - only one to go - and the medals race is still neck-and-neck, with the USA and China separated by only two golds, 29 to 27. With an overall total of 90, America has far more medals than China's 57 - but it's gold that counts. Russia meanwhile has tied Australia with 17 golds - but Russia gets the third spot with a total of 69 - to Australia's 46. Medals are awarded today in athletics, diving, mountain biking, rhythmic gymnastics, football, basketball, volleyball, sailing, canoeing, wrestling, boxing and taekwondo.

For the first time, China won two track titles here last night. Xiang Liu became the first Chinese man to win athletics gold, breaking Colin Jackson's 11-year-old world record to win the 110-metre hurdles. Then Xing Huina dramatically won the women's 10,000-metres final, snatching victory from the favourites, Ethiopians Ejagayehu Dibaba and Tulu Derartu, who finished second and third. Despite clocking the fastest time in the event this year, Britain's Paula Radcliffe had another bad night here. After collapsing before the end of Sunday's marathon, she dropped out of the 10,000 last night with eight laps to go.

And Greece was celebrating Mirela Manjani's bronze in the women's javelin, which gave Greece its largest number of total medals - 14 - since the Olympic were last in Athens - in 1896, when the host country raked in 46 medals (the USA was second with just 20). And there's more medal hope for Greece, as the men's water polo team is still in contention for a bronze in tomorrow's match against Russia.

In field events last night the women's long jump title went to Russia's Tatyana Lebedeva, who earlier won bronze in the triple jump; Cuba's Osleidys Menendez set an Olympic record to claim the women's javelin gold; and American Tim Mack also set an Olympic record to win the men's pole vault just ahead of teammate Toby Stevenson.

But that victory came at the end of a very bad day for the United States. Marion Jones finished fifth in the long jump and then was part of a disastrous handover in the 4-by-100-metre relay - so after winning five medals in Sydney, she'll go home empty-handed here. Kind of like Lauryn Williams, the runner who set off so quickly that Jones couldn't hand her the baton. After none of the US divers qualified for the platform diving semifinal, this becomes the first Olympics in 92 years where America hasn't earned a diving medal. Brazil's men's volleyball team crushed the Americans in the semifinal. But the worst was yet to come in men's basketball, when America's Dream Team was beaten by Argentina in the semifinal and will now only have a chance for bronze. But to get it they'll have to beat Lithuania - a team that has already beaten the US here in Athens.

America had better news in women's basketball, as the team beat Russia in an exciting semifinal yesterday 66-to-62. Russia will play Australia for gold today. Yesterday, Australia's men's hockey team defeated two-time Olympic champions the Netherlands to win the gold medal. And after beating the Americans in men's volleyball, Brazil will play Italy for gold here today.

And finally, there was a peaceful anti-war protest in the centre of Athens last night, which turned ugly when the police arrived to disperse the crowd with teargas. Various sources quoted 1,000 and 2,000 people gathering in Syntagma square opposite the Greek Parliament to protest the arrival of US Secretary of State Colin Powell for the final day of the Olympics. Greece's disdain with American foreign policy is no secret. Later in the day, Powell announced that he would not be visiting Athens after all - but that his decision was unrelated to the protests.

PERSONAL NOTE: GETTING AROUND ATHENS

Transportation was one of the big worries about an Athens Olympics - the city is notoriously gridlocked due to its dependency on cars. But over the past few years, they've developed a commuter train system that includes three Metro lines and suburban railways that connect the various parts of the city, as well as the four-year-old airport outside town. These trains have worked extremely well during the Games - with extra trains to and from Irini (the station nearest the Olympic complex) and extended running hours (all night on some lines). In addition to the trains, there are two tram lines (which I was warned to avoid due to overcrowding and extreme slowness) and a maze of comprehensive bus routes. The busses are extremely regular and thankfully air conditioned (which the Metro isn't, although all the windows open and it's mostly overground, so not too bad when it's in motion). Slightly more problematic are the special Olympic bus lines, which leave from makeshift bus stops near key Metro stations. Service to some venues is excellent, but others is sporadic and catastrophically under-planned. A few stories . . .

Getting to the triathlon on Thursday was fairly straightforward. Metro then a city bus to Vouliagmeni, a coastal suburb southeast of Athens. But the roads around Vouliagmeni were closed for the triathlon, and the bus driver took the detour over the hills without stopping in Vouliagmeni first. The result: A busload of angry people deposited in Varkiza, the next town down the coast. Most people wandered back in the direction of the triathlon (the furthest cycling turn wasn't too far from Varkiza), but I retraced my steps on another bus - although I was 45 minutes late (I missed the swimming).

Canoe/kayak rowing yesterday was always going to be a trek. The venue is in Schinias, near Marathon, so I thought, hey - only 26 miles, right? Yeah sure! I took the Metro and then the Suburban line to the designated station. And I knew something was wrong when I saw handwritten signs directing me to the Olympic bus. Sure enough, there were about three coachloads of people standing along the road. And no busses! By the time the first bus pulled in about 20 minutes later, there were at least five coachloads there, getting increasingly angry and venting at the hapless volunteers who were staying as far away as possible. I worked my way up in the crowd and was shoved, pulled, crammed, bludgeoned onto the fifth bus. The journey took a full hour, and we were almost an hour late for the start of competition. And it was worse afterwards, when some 10,000 happy spectators (it's a gorgeous venue) emerged to find . . . no way home! The busses arrived one-by-one, but that wasn't nearly enough. It was two hours before I was shoved, pulled, crammed, bludgeoned onto one.

My very first attempt to get a bus to a venue was to attend judo at Ano Liossia, a suburb in the hills northwest of Athens - basically the middle of nowhere. But I got off at the wrong Metro stop (Ano Patissia instead of Kato Patissia), and the Olympic bus I got on was suspiciously going the wrong way for my internal compass. Sure enough, we pulled up in front of Galatsi Olympic Hall, home of the table tennis competition (and later rhythmic gymnastics). I quickly thought: Well, why not table tennis instead of judo? But it was about two hours before the afternoon session was due to begin. So I got on another bus back to Ano Patissia, rode the Metro two stops to Kato Patissia, and then took the next bus to Ano Liossia, arriving just in time to catch the four final matches and the medal ceremonies. D'oh!

[by Rich Cline]