Monday's Olympic Highlights

BEIJING, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Monday's Olympic highlights:

-- The second week of the Olympics got under way with China continuing to pile up gold medals. One of the country's top sporting heroes, however, was in too much pain to compete and had to walk away from the starting line. Defending 110-meter hurdles champion Liu Xiang was suffering from a sore hamstring and a strained Achilles tendon.

-- China won four golds, running its total to 39. The United States has 22. The Americans remained in front in overall medals 72-67.

-- Portugal, Panama, South Africa and Morocco all won their first medal of the Olympics and a Kenyan woman won a gold for the first time ever. Palema Jelimo captured the 800-meter run.

-- After a dismal start to the track-and-field competition, the United States got a gold in the women's discus from Stephanie Brown Trafton and a sweep of the men's 400-meter hurdles medals led by Angelo Taylor. No American made the finals in the long jump. The only other time that had happened came when the United States did not show up for the Moscow Games of 1980.

-- Brazil and the United States earned spots in the women's soccer gold medal game. It will be a rematch of the last Olympics (when the United States won) and the most recent World Cup (won by Brazil).

-- Women's all-around gymnastics champion Nastia Liukin tied China's He Kexin on the uneven bars and Liukin's routine had a higher degree of difficulty. The gold medal, however, went to He because of better execution scores. The silver medal allowed Liukin to equal the number of medals (four) won by her father in the 1988 Olympics.