Usain Bolt got his third gold and third world record in the 4 x 100m men’s final. He ran the third leg for the Jamaican team and passed the baton to Asafa Powell who didn’t hold back to bring the baton home for the Jamaicans well ahead of the rest of the field. Their record of 37.10 seconds blew away the old world record set by the American team. The Russian team won a surprise gold in the women’s race after favourites Jamaica and Britain were disqualified after failing with the baton.

Tim Brabants won Britain’s first ever canoeing gold at the games today. The doctor did much better than his 5th place finish in Athens in the men’s K1 1000m race. He led from the start and held off challenges to add to world and European titles.

In the boxing Britain’s James DeGale won his round by beating Darren Sutherland of Ireland to guarantee at least a silver for team GB. The middleweight final will take place tomorrow and Britain needs DeGale to win to maintain their position in the medals table. Unfortunately Tony Jeffries and David Price will have to settle for bronze as they lost their bouts. Light-heavyweight Tony Jeffries lost to Ireland’s Kenny Egan, whereas super-heavyweight David Price was beaten by Italian Roberto Cammarelle.

In the BMX another of Britain’s big gold hopes was left disappointed as she crashed out of her final on the last corner. Reade was neck and neck with French woman Chausson but gambled on the last corner to try to take gold although silver was virtually assured. Alas the gamble didn’t pay off but instead left her crashing heavily and injuring her hand, much to the disappointment of the rest of the cycling team who had come out to watch her race.

Britain’s Heather Fell tried valiantly but was simply unable to catch Germany’s Lena Schoneborn in the modern pentathlon. The Briton still walked away with a silver after today’s final event in the bird’s nest.

The Chinese women had a whitewash in the table tennis as all three medals up for grabs were taken by the home nation. Defending champion Zhang Yining beat compatriot Wang Nan 8-11 13-11 11-8 11-8 11-3 to take gold. Whereas Guo Yue beat Singapore’s Li Jia Wei to get the bronze medal. Interestingly since the sport was introduced in 1988 the China women’s team have won the gold medal on every occasion.

However the Chinese women’s hockey team had to settle for silver as they lost in the final to the Netherlands. In the same event Britain lost to Australia in the 5th/6th classification match. Both matches finished 2-0 to their respective winners.

Unhappily China also made some headlines for the wrong reasons today as the IOC announced they will make investigations into claims that some of China’s gymnasts are under the legal age to compete. The Chinese team have been asked to give further proof of up to 5 girls’ ages. There has allegedly been evidence published on the internet that some of the girls are only 14, a claim that Chinese official vehemently deny.

So as proceedings move into the final weekend things couldn’t be tighter for team GB as Russia are once again only one gold behind Britain in the medals table. The Russians superior total medals count means that Britain will probably need some more golds before the games are finished to cement