London Olympics Day 8: A long jump forward for Team GB

Author: Stephanie Kovalchik

Great Britain surged ahead in the medal race during Day 8 taking the third position behind China and the United States, who still has a one medal lead over China. The host country now has a total of 29 medals and 14 golds.

Team GB excelled in Day 8 rowing, earning golds in Men's Four and Women's Lightweight Double Sculls, and shined in athletics with three golds, including spectacular finishes by Mo Farah in the 10,000m, Greg Rutherford in the Long Jump, and poster girl of the Olympics, Jessica Ennis, in the Heptathlon.

Andy Murray and Laura Robson guaranteed a minimum silver in tennis Mixed Doubles. With the Mixed Doubles final and the Wimbledon rematch of Murray and Federer all taking place on Sunday, Wimbledon will be the hottest ticket for Day 9. No matter what happens on Centre Court on Sunday, Laura Robson has already earned a gold in the hearts of the British fans. And deservedly so. Not only has she had the courage to go into the spotlight with the world number four singles player, Andy Murray, but she has handled the pressure brilliantly through three close matches, serving out the first match against Czechs Hradecka and Stepanek and the semifinal match against Germans Lisicki and Kas.

Day 8 was the final day of indoor swimming events. With only the marathon swimming events remaining, the United States clearly swept the aquatic portion of the Olympic Programme, winning 30 of the total 96 medals awarded. Day 8 was also the final time great Olympian Michael Phelps competed in the pool - and Phelps and his US team wrapped up the gold in the team event - the perfect farewell.

Here are some highlights of the progress in Day 8's individual athletics and swimming events.

Men's 20km walk. China took double medals in the 20km walk. Leader Ding Chen set an Olympic record with his winning time of 1:18:46. This was a 0.3% improvement on Valeriy Borchin gold-medal time at Beijing. This was a record-breaking performance but the most impressive year for the Olympic event was 1972 when Peter Frenkel went faster than the standing gold-medal time by 7.7%.

Women's Discus. Sandra Perković's 69.11m gold-winning discus throw brought the field closer to the standing Olympic record of 72.30m that was set by Martina Hellmann at the 1988 Games.

Men's Long Jump. Greg Rutherford gave the Olympic Stadium reason to sing God Save the Queen with a gold-medal jump of 8.31 meters. Still, no 21st-century Olympian has been close to American Bob Beamon's 8.9-meter feat at the Mexico City Games of 1968, one of the most outstanding performances in Olympic history.

Men's 10,000m. Mo Farah showed the home crowd that he could go the distance. A stunned Farah's 27:30.42 time was good enough to win gold. No one seemed more pleased than his training partner Galen Rupp who took the second spot alongside his friend on the Olympic podium. The medalists weren't as impressive as the Beijing champions lead by Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele, but none of the spectators seemed to mind.

Women's 100m. The event to decide the fastest woman in the world has been tainted in recent Olympic years by suspicions of doping. After Marion Jones lost her 100m gold at Sydney for using performance-enhancing drugs, many elite female sprinters have had to train under a perpetual shadow of doubt about whether they are running clean. But on Day 8, it was all about the race. In a race packed with track & field superstars, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce emerged victorious with a 10.75-second time that was just 0.03 seconds in front of America's best chance for gold Carmelita Jeter.

Men's 1500m freestyle. The 1500m freestyle is the longest in-door swimming event for male competitors. It is also one of the oldest swimming events on the Olympic programme, though the distance raced varied between 1896 and 1904. Sun Yang of China earned a second gold with a world-record time of 14:31.02.

Women's 50m freestyle. The same day that decided the fastest woman on the track also determined the fastest woman in the pool. At the London Games, the title went to Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands with an Olympic-record-breaking time of 24.05 seconds. Kromowidjojo took the Olympic record from Germany's Britta Steffen with a difference of just 1 one-hundredths of a second.