Olympics-Athletics-Belgium's Thiam wins heptathlon gold

By Mitch Phillips RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Belgium's Nafissatou Thiam won the Olympic heptathlon gold medal on Saturday as the 21-year-old did just enough in a thrilling final 800 metres to edge out Britain's defending champion Jessica Ennis-Hill. After two days of see-saw competition, Thiam went into the final event with a lead of 142 points, which equated to around nine seconds. Ennis's personal best before Rio was 9.47 seconds better than Thiam's and she ran hard from the front to finish well clear. Thiam, however, dug deep to come in just over seven seconds behind, a second inside her personal best, and good enough to take gold. Canada's Brianne Theisen-Eaton claimed bronze after a strong second day. (Editing by Ed Osmond)