Sunday's Olympic Highlights

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LONDON, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Sunday's highlights from the Olympics:

-- The citizens of London, the first city to host the Summer Olympics three times, said goodbye to the Games they helped make a huge success. Whether it was rowing, cycling or track and field, the crowds came out to cheer anybody and everybody who competed. A small outdoor area was built to accommodate the final few hundred yards of the modern pentathlon cross-country race and it was packed when Laura Asadauskaite of Lithuania became the last of the 302 gold medalists.

-- The men's marathon is always held on the final day of the Olympics and this one was won by Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda. He became the first marathon winner from his country and it was not an easy victory. High humidity made it a tough day on which to run and almost 20 percent of the competitors dropped out during the 26-mile effort.

-- It took almost an hour and a half to complete the men's cross-country cycling race and at the end the top two finishers were separated by a second. Jaroslav Kulhavy of the Czech Republic defeated Switzerland's Nino Schurter. During the Olympics the women's 10-kilometer swimming event was decided by six-tenths of a second and the women's triathlon, after 2 hours of competition, wound up in a photo finish.

-- While athletes who had long finished their events were getting ready for the closing ceremonies, six young women from Russia were going about the business of winning the rhythmic gymnastics team gold medal. Russians have won both the team and all-around rhythmic titles at four straight Olympics.

-- With Kevin Durant scoring 30 points and LeBron James overcoming four fouls to provide key shots in the fourth quarter, the United States fought off Spain in the finals for the second Olympics in a row. The U.S. basketball team won its fifth gold medal in six Olympics with a 107-100 victory.

-- The American gold medal on the basketball court was the 46th and final one won by the United States. That is the largest U.S. total since the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984, when the Americans won 83 times while the Soviet bloc nations stayed home. China, which won 51 gold medals when it hosted the Games four years ago, finished with 38 this time even though it won every event in both badminton and table tennis.

-- Britain finished with 29 gold medals, a number topped only by the 56 won in 1908 when London hosted the Games and soon discovered it did not have much competition. Russia, which had seen its gold medal total dwindle during the previous two Olympics, finished with 24 -- one more than it won in Beijing. Greece, where the Olympics began and where the flame is lighted prior to each of the Games, wound up with two bronze medals.

-- The Olympic flag was passed from the mayor of London to the mayor of Rio de Janeiro. That is where the flag will be until 2016, when it will be raised over the first Olympics ever held in South America.