It has been a truly historic weekend at the Beijing Olympics and a hugely successful one for Britain. The blue ribbon event took place in the bird's nest on Saturday evening. The men's 100m has been the most anticipated event in the Olympics with the focus on the three favourites, Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay. However the American, Gay, was unable to progress past the semi-finals having had little preparation for the games following injury.

After promising much in the heats Bolt delivered in the final in unbelievable fashion. Halfway down the track the Jamaican turned on the power and blew the opposition away, he even had time to celebrate 10m before the line. The time was most impressive though 9.69 seconds, a new world record.

The much talked about Michael Phelps also achieved his dream today. As part of the American 4 x 100m relay team he took his eighth gold medal of the games, breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven golds in one games. Talking about his triumph the 23 year old said "with so many people saying it can't be done, all it takes is imagination."

Nevertheless this weekend can definitely be regarded as team GB's as they took a mammoth 17 medals in one weekend. The team took 8 golds medals over the weekend in what some are calling the greatest Olympic weekend in recent history for the UK.

Rebecca Adlington kicked things off with a gold in the 800m freestyle. It was her second gold of the games and she broke the world record in the process.

Britain continued the strong tradition of success in the coxless four rowing as they fought back to pip the Australians to gold. 2 bronzes were also taken on Saturday when both the men's and women's double sculls did extremely well.

Another strong event for Britain is cycling and much was expected of the team GB cycling. They didn't disappoint as Bradley Wiggins and Chris Hoy both delivered gold in the 4000m individual pursuit and the keirin. Ross Edgar was a shock silver as he snuck into 2^nd behind Hoy. Chris Newton then won a bronze in the points race as Steven Burke also took bronze in the 4000m pursuit.

Saturday wasn't such a great day for Kelly Sotherton however as her heptathlon dream ended with the gold hopeful finishing in a disappointing fifth position.

Sunday was also golden for the British team as the postponed final day of the sailing got under way. Ben Ainslie fulfilled all the promise of the last day as he picked up his third gold medal. The Olympic champion held off American Zach Railey to become champion. Britain's Yngling crew battled against the weather to hold of the Dutch and become Olympic champions.

The first ever lightweight rowing gold for Britain was won by Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter. The lightweight double sculls beat the Greeks to live up to their hype.

The women's quad sculls also looked set for gold but an inspired Chinese boat pushed them down into second place. It was a historic day for China too as that was China's first ever rowing gold. On Saturday the Chinese women's pairs also took silver. The men's eights battled back in the second half of their race and almost caught winners Canada as they took silver.

Their was more glory on the cycling track as the women also did us proud. Rebecca Romero took a great gold over team-mate Wendy Houvenaghel as Britain had a top two lockout. What made it more remarkable was that Romero took a rowing silver back in Athens, a truly inspirational woman.

19 year old Louis Smith became the first British man to get a medal in individual gymnastics event. He was a surprise medallist after putting in a solid performance.

Paula Radcliffe put in a courageous performance in the marathon after her leg break in May. However it ended in relative disappointment as she could only manage a finish of 23^rd place. The bronze in the same event went to China's Zhou Chunxiu.

Rafael Nadal continued his imperious form to take Olympic gold today. The Spaniard beat Fernando Gonzalez 6-3 7-6.

The ‘bad boy' of badminton Lin Dan lived all to all his hype as he won a gold medal. He beat Lee Chong Wei 21-12 21-8 to take the glory. There was also a bronze medal in the mixed doubles for China as He and Yu beat Limpele and Marissa.

The women's diving was also taken by one of the favourites. Guo Jingjing took gold in the 3m springboard final with 415.35 points. Her diving partner took bronze.

Two more golds were on their way to the home nation in the gymnastics. Zou Kai in the men's floor final and Xiao Qin in the pommel horse final.

In the pool China's women's 4x 100m relay team took bronze behind the USA and Australia. The women's 72kg freestyle wrestling final was also golden for China as Wang Jiao became champion.

The ‘golden weekend' shot Britain up to third in the medal table. They only trail the USA and China who now have 35 gold medals.