Thursday's Olympic Highlights

BEIJING, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Thursday's Olympic highlights:

-- The Games were significantly affected by nasty weather. Two canoe/kayak finals were postponed until Friday, the archery final took place in the rain, the United States' softball game with Canada was halted after three innings and the tennis action, where surprises were commonplace, was forced late into the night. Even the sailing events had to be pushed back a day.

-- The rain didn't slow the Chinese express. The host country won five gold medals to run its total to 17. China also overtook the United States in overall medals -- 35-34. That success included a triumph by Yang Wei in the mistake-filled men's all-around gymnastics event.

-- Roger Federer, about to lose his No. 1 world tennis ranking, also lost his chance for an Olympic medal when American James Blake beat him in the quarterfinals. Both the Williams sisters fell as well -- Serena to Elena Dementieva of Russia and Venus to Li Na of China.

-- The American men's basketball team turned up the defense to down Greece 92-69. Greece had defeated the United States in the 2006 world championships. Dwyane Wade had six of the Americans' 15 steals.

-- Three American women won medals in individual saber earlier in the Olympics but they couldn't beat Ukraine in the team semifinals and had to settle for the bronze. Ukraine beat China for the gold.

-- Michael Phelps didn't have a medal event but easily won his semifinal heat in the 200-meter individual medley. He goes after his sixth gold of the Games on Friday. Japan's Kosuke Kitajima briefly became the swimming star by completing a double gold medal performance in the breaststroke for the second straight Olympics.