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we offer expertise and tailored solutions for small businesses and major corporations. what can we do for you? >> and now "bbc world news." >> hello, and welcome to "bbc world news" live from our studios overlooking the olympic park in london. i'm george al guya. a test of brotherly love. britain's alister and johnny brownlee are favorites to win first and second in the men's triathlon. >> we'll be reporting from hyde park. johnny brownlee, number 31 is setting pace on lap two of the pike.

>> and in other news, manila flooded. brought to a standstill by rain. >> there's shanty towns behind me that have been completely destroyed. they are moving all their possessions as quickly as they can. >> and aleppo as iran launches diplomatic moves in iran and anxious ray. -- and ancra. >> hello, and welcome to day 11 of the london 2012 games. 21 olympic champions will be crowned today in events as diverge as wrestling and others and they hope team g.b. will

receive its medals. and usain bolt will be back on the track as he begins defending his 200-meter title, and we will have the blue ribbon's men 200-meter final. some sports like swimming already in their closing stages. our australia correspondent will be here with his assessment on london 2012. for more on all this, let's go first to peter dobbie who is watching the triathlon at hyde narc london. pete center >> george, good afternoon from hyde park. we have some of the world's top tri@leets taking part in this iconic race because it goes past so many of the important parts you see in post cards and such. now brother jonathan brownlee

is leading lap two. 1.5 kilometers to swim and come out 5 minutes later. later the runners and riders. we were joined by the editor of "2020 triathlon." who did you favor? >> alister ahead of jonathon. two years older. has two more championships under his bag. and perhaps has a little bit more than his brother. rivals? tricky with triathlons. one in the past has proved history books go out the window a blit. but looking at goes, he's a strong runner and has won the world champs twice before. then you've got the russians pollian ski and alexander are cange cough.

their russians are probably the strongest in the group. they can break the brownlees. that will be their chance. the problem is one doesn't have the speed of the brownlees in running. he won bronze in@innocence 2004. he's a big race player. he could be in contention and then simon with it field, here for his fourth olympics in a row. won gold in sydney, silver four years ago. one to carry the olympic flag for canada. so they are probably the main players. >> if you were individualsing the brownlees, you would say -- >> a.s.a.p. on the bike and maintain your distance. >> with the brownlees with their run speed, the thing is about them, they are strong. strong swimmers and bikers and runners.

historically, you've got strong runners sitting in the back saving 25% of the others and then it becomes a 0-k race with the brownlees, they push it from the swim and bike and with the running, they just stride on. they have just got the power. >> james with it from 20 two magazine. earlier there was a massive influx of crowds. some have gone from here to serpen tine thinking they will get a better vanityage point. that's not going to happen. this is the better place. you can hear the noise, the roar of the crowd as they watch the second race pack on the bike coming through. gomez, very strong runner. so he doesn't have to worry about the last five or six kilometers on the bike. alister, the 4, johnny 22.

they could cross the finish line and we could have the photo finish we saw with the women's race. alistair had an issue with injury and tripped and fell on one of his races. the brownlees are super strong. they will try to gain ground on this technical course that favors them. these guys live and train in leeds. they are used to wind and rain. but at the moment, mr. gomez for spain. watch out the russian, as well, he's never finished in the top three, but is a strong performer all the way through. but right now, here, at the olympic triathlon is javier gomez of spain in the lead. george, back to you. >> thank you. more to tell us. now, let's catch up on the other olympic news.

francis collins is here with me. want to start with love you zhang crashing over the first hurdles. >> whether it's been the face of the london 2012 games, the same thing happened there due to achilles concerns. it's happened again, and of course it's devastating for any athlete to peak in the world olympics and then have the technical failing which is what it was. >> now no technical failings with yoo cane bolt. performing, defending his 100-meter title. >> he talks about greatness winning the 200-meter. which is his favorite event. he can only achieve legendary status if he achieves the doubles again, so he has been going through qualifiers today.

he is a favorite wherever he goes but especially with this crowd. he is very popular around all the gentleman make ens and everywhere. >> a couple nights ago, he tweeted a photograph of himself with the swedish hand ball team at 3:00 in the morning. >> who can blame him? but of course he had to rest because the 200-meter qualifiers were coming up. >> we talk about team g.b. and the americans and chinese and multiple golds. but the olympics is about nations big and small and of course venezuela has been celebrating because they got one gold. >> a 44-year drought. seen at can a rack cuss airport.

hugo chavez said he is going to give him the highest honor, the order of the liberator. but likewise cyclists got their first-ever legal medal. so expect similar scenes when pavlos goes back. but this is what it's all about. it is about the big stars. it's all about the countries that get success after so long. >> don't want to talk too much about that. but the triple jumper is going to be performing today. >> he ease had his first jump and hasn't qualified. but phillips is a maverick. terrific. sniverl beijing but fallen out with his coach, apparently. no one's really seen him. he's not competed and been carrying an injury and keeping his head down and only turned

up at the athlete's village two days ago. >> i did say we had thorp in here. -- thorp in here. obviously we're going to talk about me me. but before that, give me your assessment of what the swimming has been like at london 2012. >> the swimming has been an evolution and an evolution that's been coming almost 10 years. we spoke about what could happen in swimming, and what has happened is the world olympic qualifiers and we have been talking about this in swimming circles but it's actually happened in these olympics and similar to men's tennis where you will see nadal go out in the first round. so people swimming at olympic games is going to become a rarity, because people can't handle the program as easily as they once did. >> what's changed? >> the rest of the world.

the rest of the world has gotten better a lot better at swimming. in australia, one gold medal at this olympics games. and it really was the u.s. against the chinese and really the u.s. against the world when we look at the medals. but the u.s. was still dominant. but the rest of the country, the medals are more evenly spread throughout world. when we look at china, we look at the south koreans performing well. swimming has the second highest participation sport of any sport in the world. so it has come along of late. >> what about me me. is it just me or did we see a vulnerability about him? or certainly a more likable character? engaged more. >> michael's like this if you know michael. 2004 michael was young, very successful swimmer. 2008, he went on and was on

task. he was just trying to get to that eighth gold medal, then obviously we saw him celebrate. then we saw a brilliant athlete. now we're able to see a more human side of michael phelps. funny and silly. >> do you actually have a life when you're training? what sort of training do you have to do building up for an olympics? >> i've only come back to swim once. [laughter] >> but it's a commitment to something that has to be a passion. if it's not that, you won't be committed. you will not be dedicated. and to say we live in a bubble is not accurate either. i look at what i do in the pool. i'm very committed to my training and the time there. but you have to experience time

there. but when we travel, you have to do this. otherwise your life becomes something, and you plate your own kind of value in the results that you have in a competition which anybody will tell you is absolutely nuts. >> what is life like on this particular occasion to be an expert but an expert watcher rather than a doer? have you found that? >> it's been lovely. [laughter] >> i mean -- >> i would like to dive in. >> but what i do is i watch and get nervous every time before a race if i know someone in the race. then i'm watching people swim and trying to correct the stroke for them as they are swimming and then the cameras are coming back and i better actually do my job. but it's nice to see this much swimming and be able to talk about it as well. >> and almost the drugs

controversy between the chinese swimmer, what did you make of those comments after the incredible win? >> when we talk about the drugs in sport and anti-doping. there's no benefit to actually add a nationality or name in this conversation. if you remove it, you can have an intelligent conversation with anyone in the world about this. so that's what we need to do first. then we actually have to have performances from young athletes or any athletes and their reaction is what an extraordinary performance not oh, they must be taking drugs. this isn't fair. and sports has to work with the media and have its trust with the public again. that's not what is happening. in the case of the olympic games, when these times have when athletes are young in which this athlete is very young.

>> i was a champion and took five seconds off when i was 16. and that was the record. and if you look at the age groups. i was an age group swim they're happened to be at a world championship. so it's not out of the ordinary for someone to do that. >> i think we will have to leave it there. thank you so much for being with us. all right. and you can keep up to date with all the latest olympic results at the bbc.com olympics 2012 including the memorable swim. find out if statistics can explain her time in the 400-meter medly. it's all at the website. this is "bbc world news." still ahead. we will find out how some quick thinking saved the day for some of yoo cane's -- usain bolt's biggest fans.

time now for our series looking back at past olympics. in 1988, new zealand's went to -- as a defending gold medalist, but many doubted he could carry off another victory. his beloved horse was small for an eventer and by then getting on in age. but what he told us in today's post card is his sustaining olympics was different. >> it was in a pretty foreign country and certainly had no horse background, but built a specialty racing complex there and it was actually amazing. and leading up to seoul. there was a lot of talk that the horse at 16 was past his best and maybe he shouldn't be going and that my younger horse was probably a better bet. but i was pretty confident. and so i went to seoul in a

very positive frame of mind and believed that the horse was as good as he ever had been. riding the horse there, he just felt absolutely amazing. i don't think i'd ever had him as good. he went and won that quite comfortably. so basically he led the competition from start to end. in the stark country he gave me a fantastic ride and gay me the fastest time and when he got to the high jumping which was his weakest point, i think we had advantages over the competition, and it was a very satisfying, probably even more so than winning at l.a., because as i said, we had gone there slightly as underdogs, people doubting the horse was as good as he had been and doubted that i should have taken there and we went there and proved everybody wrong and won it in absolutely convincing

style. so it was a brilliant result for me. >> this is "bbc world news." live from london. the headlines. the philippine capital of manila is at a standstill after flooding caused by a day of rainfall. and brothers bid for gold. britain's alistair and johnny brownlee are favorites for the medals in the men's triathlon taking place right now. >> now away from the olympics, the head of iran's national security council is in talks with president assad in what appears to be a new round of diplomatic activity and iran's foreign minister is due in turkey later for discussions about the release of a group of iranians believed to have been kidnapped by the free syrian army.

and activists say there's been more heavy bombardment by forces government forces. now we can talk to our correspondent jim muir in beirut. let's start with the head of security in damascus and the foreign minister going to anchor. what's -- what do you make of this? >> i think the visit to ancra is more related to the disappearance or abduction of 48 iranians who they say were on a pilgrimage when they were abducted off a bus on the southern side of the city. on saturday. three of them are reported by their captainors to have been killed in a shelling. so obviously the iranians would like strotch get the help of turkey -- would like to get the help of turkey which has borders and relations with home

the get these men freed. separately, you've got a visit to the region by mr. gentlemanlyly, the head of the national security county. he has a hotline to the very top of the leadership in iran. he's been here in beirut talking to officials and also -- the breaking of the fast here in beirut. foregoing to -- where he's already held talks with president assad. now iranians do seem to be trying to get some sort of political process going. talking about dialogues and possibly even the general elections although they held the general elections in may. but i think a lot of people are feeling it's probably a little bit later in the day for the iranians to be talking about dialogue when the logic at the

moment is very much toward settling things on the battlefield. >> all right, jim, thank you very much for that update. thank you. >> more now on the olympics in a moment. but first the philippine capital of manila has been brought to a near stand still by floodwaters. at least the 20,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. manila and the northern philippines have suffered constant bad weather for over a week now. more than 50 people have been killed. the bbc's kate mcgeown is with us now. >> believe it or not this was a road yesterday. the river is just over there. and it's completely burst its banks, and as you can tell it's completely flooded this road. and this is the main road between the rest of manila and mayor tina. so there are thousands of

people stuck in their homes and 20,000 people have been evacuated as they have moved baseball courts and really anywhere the government can find that's dry to put them because really the rain has been like this for more than 24 hours now, and it's showing no signs of stopping. there was a typhoon a week ago. the authorities knew that and warned people. but these rains have been far more -- well, they have not stopped. and they have been really strong for more than 24 hours. and that is the thing that's so dangerous here. because the roads are underground were saturated before. and the authorities do seem to be trying to take as much control as they can. but it's flooded. so it's difficult for them to find enough places for people to go that aren't water logged. >> kate mcgeown in manila.

>> and denying claims it laundered iranian money. it says the bank had fallen sharply off financial regular flarets new york accused it of hiding more than $250 billion in illegal transactions with iran. >> a bomb blast outside of kabul has killed at least nine civilians. they were traveling by minibus when their vehicle was hit by a mobile-controlled device. it was carrying members of the afghan national army. a russian state prosecutor has called for members of the band pussy riot to be jailed for inciting religious unrest after storming a religious place and

demanding the virgin mary remove vladimir putin from power. >> now hot on the gymnastics heels of the competition, has inspired visitors to london as bbc world's correspondent found out. >> the rith mick sport of gymnastics starts. it's all about poise. a mixture of poise, ballet and gymnastics. we come to that part of london to ask the great international public if they want a go. they will have a certain element of performance in their act, hula hoops and ribbons and interpretive dance. >> ♪ oh, sometimes i get a

good feeling yeah ♪ >> i'm from taiwan. i came to join the olympics. 2012. ♪ >> hello. >> hello. >> we're from sweden, and this is our gymnastics. ♪ >> i'm from bell, and i'm going to show you the hul ahoop. [applause] >> now it was the moment the entire nation had been waiting for almost ruined by an unimportant to event. some of usain bolt's fans gathered to watch their

champion in the 100-meter final but just as the race was about to begin, look at what happens, the power in there was cut. right. well, while they waited, one of bolt's supporters was on hand with a small radio for them to follow those vital 10 seconds. do stay with us here on "bbc do stay with us here on "bbc world news."