London Olympics Day 12: A bagel for Team GB

Author: Stephanie Kovalchik

Even President George W. Bush recognised the

quality of his nation's Women's Beach Volleyball

team. Misty May-Treanor is on the left and

Kerri Walsh-Jennings is on the right, here in the

practice courts before their matches at the 2008

Summer Olympics in Beijing.

It was a disappointing day at the Games for the home country. Despite medals being awarded in 19 separate events, not one went to a British athlete. Team GB's zero-medal performance on Day 12 - a bagel in tennis lingo - brought the country down to fifth place in the medal's race.

While the British team was struggling with a lukewarm day of competition, the US athletes caught fire. Over the course of Day 12, Team USA earned 11 total medals, four of them gold. This leaves the US with a total of 81 medals, a comfortable four medal lead over China. Three of the US' Day 12 golds were in track & field events. The fourth gold went to Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings in Women's Beach Volleyball. This is the third consecutive gold for the pair who have been almost flawless in Olympic competition, losing only one of 43 sets over three Olympiads. They say the London finals was their last competitive match together. It is hard to imagine that any volleyball duo will ever have the magic of this pair.

Below is a closer look at the performance trends for today's athletics events.

Men's 110m hurdles. The Men's 110m hurdles has been on the Olympic Programme since the first Modern Olympic Games. Between 1988 and 2008 there has been a 2 to 3 tenths separation between the gold medalist's time and the second place finish. This year the difference was narrowed some, with American Jason Richardson finishing 0.12 seconds behind his teammate Aries Merritt's time of 12.92 seconds.

One trend that continues is the American dominance of this event. Since 1988, Americans have collected 62% of the medals in the 110m hurdles.

Women's 200m. After two consecutive silvers at the Athens and Beijing Games, American Allyson Felix finally earned the gold she has been striving for all along. Though Felix's 21.88-second time was a 0.05 second improvement on her result at the 2008 finals, it was still 2.5% slower than Florence Griffith-Joyner's winning time at the Seoul Games of 1988, the current world record for this event.

Women's 400m hurdles. This was one of the few track & field events of the day that was not won by an American. The US favorite Lashinda Demus had to instead settle for silver. Natalya Antyukh snagged a gold for Russia with a time of 52.7 seconds.

Women's long jump. Once again the American women are still competing in the shadow of the the US's best female athletes of the 1980s. Brittney Reese's 7.12-meter flight won her gold in London, but it was 0.33 meters behind Jackie Joyner-Kersee's Olympic record set at the 1988 Seoul Games.