[nivo_slider source=”post” link=”image” size=”625×450″ limit=”25″ effect=”random” speed=”600″ delay=”3000″]LONDON, England ● Lizzie Armitstead finally got the Olympic host nation onto the medal table on Sunday after the 23-year-old Brit claimed silver in the Women’s road race – a 140.3-km ride starting and ending on The Mall.
After the disappointment of Team GB in the men’s race Britain’s hopes of a first gold in London were again put on ice when the Leeds native was beaten by Dutchwoman Marianne Vos, who with the win put years of frustration behind her.
Vos – a runner-up in the last five editions of the road race world championships – outsprinted her British breakaway companion in the final few metres and held on for Olympic glory.
Russian Olga Zabelinskaya, also featuring in the breakaway, took third place.
Britain claimed their second medal of the day and first in the pool when Rebecca Adlington won bronze in the women’s 400 metres freestyle final.
The defending Olympic champion was no match for France’s Camille Muffat who held off a ferocious challenge from American Allison Schmitt to win the gold in a new Olympic record time of four minutes, 01.45 seconds.
Dana Vollmer destroyed the field and the world record en route to winning the women’s 100 metres butterfly gold medal.
The 24-year-old American completed the race in a winning time of 55.98 seconds beating the previous mark of 56.06 set by Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström in 2009.
China’s Lu Ying was almost a second adrift in second while Australian Alicia Coutts claimed bronze.
The records continued to fall in the pool.
Moments after Vollmer set her world-topping mark South Africa’s Cameron Van Der Burgh had the Aquatics centre on their feet again.
The 24-year-old from Pretoria won the men’s 100 metres breaststroke gold and set a new world record time in doing so.
Van der Burgh clocked a time of 58.46 seconds leaving Australian Christian Sprenger with silver and Brendsan Hansen with bronze.
It was a good day for France at the Aquatics centre.
Soon after Muffat’s triumph France were on top of the podium again when the men’s team won the 4×100 freestyle relay gold.
The United States, who led until the final lap, had to settle for silver while Russia clinched bronze. The world champions Australia finished fourth.
World champions He Zi and Wu Minxia of China dominated the field to win the women’s diving synchronised 3m springboard gold.
He, who has now won the last three Olympic titles in the discipline, and Wu scored 346.20 points.
American pair Kelci Bryant and Abby Johnston leaped to silver while Canada’s Jennifer Abel and Emilie Heymans took third thanks to their final dive.
British teenager Alicia Blagg and Rebecca Gallantree finished seventh.
Shooter Kimberley Rhode became the first U.S. competitor to win individual medals in five consecutive Games after comfortably winning the women’s skeet gold.
Rhode – a medal winner in Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing and now London – finished with a total of 99 points, only missing one of the 100 clays she shot at all day.
Wei Ning of China took silver while Slovakia’s Danka Bartekova beat Marina Belikova of Russia in a shootoff to win bronze.
South Korea won the Olympic women’s team archery title for the seventh consecutive Games after beating China by a single point in the final at Lord’s cricket ground.
They have never lost a final since the event was introduced in 1988 in Seoul.
China’s Guo Wenjun won the women’s 10 metre air pistol Olympic shooting title – France’s Celine Goberville was second and Olena Kostevych of Ukraine third.
North Korea’s An Kum Ae won gold in the women’s -Judo 52kg category.
The 32-year-old, ranked 25th in the world, improved on her silver four years ago when she beat Cuba’s Yanet Bermoy Acosta with a yuko throw in the extra time golden score period.
In soccer Spain’s bid to add the Olympic title to their World and European crowns ended in acrimony on Sunday after a shock 1-0 defeat by Honduras left them unable to reach the knockout stage.
Title favourites Brazil, inspired by dazzling forward Neymar, swept into the quarter-finals after coming from behind to beat Belarus 3-1 at Old Trafford with Neymar scoring and creating the other two.
They were joined in the last eight by Japan, who followed up their win over Spain on Thursday with another 1-0 win over Morocco.