American sprint stars Justin Gatlin and Maurice Greene got lost in translation when they arrived for their post-100m final news conference.

New champion Gatlin and bronze medallist Greene sat themselves down and slipped on the headphones sitting on the desk in front of them. When the first question came in, they realised what they were hearing was all Greek to them. “I don’t need these,” frowned Greene, before throwing the headset back on to the table and laughing off his embarrassment.

• Equatorial Guinea athlete Rob Caracciolo must be one of the unluckiest men at the Games. Caracciolo arrived in Athens to be told he would have to run in the 1500m rather than his specialist event, the 3,000m steeplechase, due to eligibility rules. He was forced to make last-minute preparations for his new challenge, and went on to finish 36th fastest out of 38 competitors in a new national record time. The following day he found out that he could have entered the 3000m steeplechase after all.

• German track cyclist Stefan Nimke got a nasty shock when one of his team-mates pulled out of the men’s sprint event with an injury.

Nimke, who won bronze in the kilometre time trial on Friday, was asked to ride in the event instead, even though he is not a sprint specialist. He was soon looking forward to having the day off after coming last in the qualification round, but had to race again when Japan’s Tomohiro Nagatsuka was forced out by hemorrhoids. The German promptly lost in the first round to Australia¿s Ryan Bailey, only to find himself with a place in the repechage.