* Algerian wins gold a day after nearly being disqualified
* Iranian weightlifter is Games' strongest man
* Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang makes shock exit
* Cyclist Chris Hoy equals Wiggins' medal haul
* Jamaican Usain Bolt breezes into 200 metre semis
* Britain in another gold rush, in 3rd place overall
(Updates with athletics finals, weightlifting, more medals)
LONDON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Taoufik Makhloufi ran a scorching
last lap to take gold for Algeria in the Olympic 1,500 metres on
Tuesday, a day after dropping out of an 800m heat with what his
team said was a knee injury.
On another cold, rainy night in the Olympic stadium,
Australia's Sally Pearson won the women's 100m hurdles by
two-hundredths of a second from defending champion Dawn Harper
of the United States. Unsure of the outcome, she let out a
scream of delight when the scoreboard confirmed her victory.
Shaggy-haired Ivan Ukhov won gold in the men's high jump for
Russia, which also celebrated victories in diving and
synchronised swimming as it edged up to fifth in the medals
table after a disappointing Games so far.
Iran took gold and silver in the superheavyweight
weightlifting competition, where Behdad Salimikordasiabi -
Salimi for short - earned himself the unofficial title of
strongest man at the Games.
The Iranians also captured a wrestling gold and their first
ever athletics medal when Ehsan Hadadi hurled the discus 68.18
metres to take second place, just 9 cm behind Germany winner
Robert Harting.
Elswehere on Day 11 of competition in London, Italy's Josefa
Idem, the only woman to compete in eight Olympics, advanced to
the kayak final at the age of 47, powering past a field of 20-
and 30-year-olds.
Two brothers won gold and bronze for Britain in the
triathlon, adding to the host nation's biggest medal tally for
104 years, and four medals were awarded for the first time in an
Olympic cycling race when a photo finish could not separate the
third and fourth finishers from the Netherlands and New Zealand.
'NOT TRYING'
Makhloufi's victory was controversial as it came just a day
after he was temporarily disqualified for not trying in his 800m
heat - and then reinstated when his team said he had a knee
injury and had the decision overturned on medical grounds.
He broke away on the back straight of the final lap and
accelerated around the last bend to win comfortably from
American Leonel Manzano and Moroccan Abdalaati Iguider.
China's Liu Xiang left the Olympic stadium in a wheelchair
after hitting the first barrier in a 110 metre hurdles heat
while Jamaican Usain Bolt breezed through an "easy" 200
qualifier in his favourite event.
Liu suffered a cruel echo of his early exit from Beijing
four years ago, and indications were that it was the same
Achilles injury that led to his fall on a cool, cloudy morning
in London.
China's first male gold medallist on the Olympic track after
triumphing in 2004, Liu remains his country's most popular
sportsman alongside former basketball player Yao Ming.
Fellow athletes expressed their sympathy. "This is really
sad for any athlete," Bolt told reporters.
Fans back in China quickly took to social networking
websites to voice their dismay. "My heart is broken," wrote one
on Chinese microblogging service Sina Weibo.
At the opposite end of sport's emotional spectrum, there was
jubilation in Grenada, whose prime minister gave everyone the
afternoon off work to celebrate 19-year-old Kirani James' gold
in Monday night's men's 400 meters. The Caribbean island nation
of 110,000 people had never won an Olympic medal before.
BOLT THROUGH
Bolt, who set the second fastest time ever in his weekend
100 metres triumph, brimmed with confidence after qualifying
comfortably for the 200 semis before another capacity 80,000
crowd at the main stadium.
He remains on course for an unprecedented Olympic sprint
"double-double" at Thursday's final, although he may have to do
it without the skipping rope he uses to train.
On his way into Sunday's 100 final an official removed the
rope, saying it was against the rules, and Games chief Sebastian
Coe has ordered an investigation into why it was confiscated.
Bolt, who has described some of the rules at the Games as
"weird", said he planned to bring the rope with him on Thursday.
"I am going to do it tomorrow ... I am going to stick it
under my bag, bottom of my bag or something."
BRITISH JOY
Home nation Britain surpassed its heroics of four years ago,
when it picked up 19 golds in Beijing, by amassing 22 and
counting.
Triathlete Alistair Brownlee crossed the line in central
London's Hyde Park draped in the Union flag to make it 19, while
his younger brother Jonathan held on for bronze despite having
to wait out a 15-second penalty for an infringement.
Britain's horse riders triumphed in the dressage arena at
Greenwich Park, ahead of Germany and the Netherlands.
At the velodrome, where the crowd's roars were deafening,
Chris Hoy won his seventh Olympic medal, and sixth gold, with
victory in the keirin, where the riders shadow a motorised pacer
bike before building to a sprint finish.
Hoy overtook rowing great Steve Redgrave's five golds and
matched fellow cyclist Bradley Wiggins as Britain's most
decorated Olympian, although Wiggins has only four golds.
Hoy was pushed to the limit by German Maximilian Levy, who
took silver. New Zealand's Simon van Velthooven and Dutchman
Teun Mulder both won bronze medals after a photo finish could
not split them.
Laura Trott won in the cycling track omnium, but Victoria
Pendleton, favourite to prevail in the individual sprint, lost
out to Australian arch rival Anna Meares.
MORE GOLDS FOR CHINA
China moved one step away from a second successive clean
sweep of Olympic table tennis golds when their women marched to
a 3-0 victory over Japan's young team.
The Chinese picked up two more wins in gymnastics. Deng
Linlin beat her compatriot Siu Lu to the balance beam title an
hour after Feng Zhe had won the men's parallel bars title.
Flying Dutchman Epke Zonderland caused an upset, however, by
claiming the horizontal bar title ahead of Chinese favourite Zou
Kai, who could only manage bronze.
American Aly Raisman won the women's floor exercise title,
90 minutes after earning a bronze on the beam.
Russia's Ilya Zakharov scored a surprise triumph in the
men's 3 metre springboard diving final, ruining China's ambition
of an eight-gold sweep in the sport.
Dutchman Dorian van Rijsselberghe became the last men's RS:X
windsurfing champion at the Olympics, with the event being
replaced by kiteboarding in 2016 at the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Marina Alabau Neira of Spain won the women's title.
In kayaking, Italy's Idem advanced to the final where she
aims to add to her gold from Sydney (2000), two silvers from
Beijing (2008) and Athens (2004) and bronzes from Atlanta (1996)
and Los Angeles (1984).
"I don't care about age," a smiling Idem told reporters.
"The stopwatch doesn't ask."
Canada's women soccer players were less happy, accusing
Norwegian referee Christiana Pedersen of bias towards the United
States after their dramatic 4-3 extra-time defeat in the
tournament semi-final on Monday.
Pedersen took the rare step of penalising Canadian
goalkeeper Erin McLeod for holding the ball too long.
"We feel like we got robbed in this game," McLeod said.
South Korea's Kim Hyeonwoo won his country's first wrestling
gold of the Games in the Greco-Roman 66kg final, despite
competing with a badly swollen right eye.
Late on Monday, Cameroon's ministry of sports and physical
education said seven athletes had disappeared while in Britain
for the Olympics.
The five boxers, a swimmer and a soccer player may have
vanished to seek a more prosperous life in Europe, but the
International Olympic Committee said on Tuesday it was not aware
of the incident.
(Additional reporting by the Reuters Olympic team; Editing by
Mark Meadows and Sonya Hepinstall)