Summer Olympics, Day 8: Complete Coverage From Saturday

The way that the long jump competition works is this: everyone takes three jumps. After everyone in the finals has jumped three times, they cut the field down to eight, using the best jump of the three from each athlete.

After the cut, there are three more jumps from the remaining eight athletes. The longest of every finalist’s six jumps wins. So, sometimes, someone has already won before it’s time to take the final jump. That leads to awesome moments like this one.

The race to decide the world’s fastest woman is in the books, and Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce took gold in 10.75 seconds. The United States managed to place three runners in the top five, including Carmelita Jeter, who missed out on gold by three hundredths of a second.

Three Americans and two Jamaicans raced their way into the final, and sure enough those five runners took the top five slots. Fraser-Pryce barely edged out Jeter, with the Jamaican finishing just .03 seconds ahead and Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown taking bronze just .03 seconds behind her. In fourth and fifth were Americans Tianna Madison and Allyson Felix, who both finished off of the podium but each recorded personal bests in the event, finishing at 10.85 and 10.89, respectively.

Mo Farah was able to hold off a field of unbelievably talented runners in order to capture the gold medal for host country Great Britain on Saturday. United States runner Galen Rupp won the silver with a mad dash in the home stretch. Both men were elated, particularly Farah, who got to capture the medal in front of his countrymen who were roaring him on to victory. You can definitely see his unbridled joy in these photos.

The race capped off a huge day in track and field for Great Britain, as they took three gold medals throughout Saturday, also picking up the top honors in women’s heptathlon and men’s long jump.

Saturday night at the 2012 Summer Olympics belongs to Great Britain on the track.

Shortly after fellow British track stars Jessica Ennis won heptathlon and Greg Rutherford took gold in long jump, Mo Farah won the gold medal in the men’s 10,000m, crossing the finish line in 27:30.42 (yep, that’s a 4:25-mile pace, run over 6.2 miles, which is insane, of course). Farah, the current World Champion in the 5,000m, becomes the first British athlete ever to win gold in the men’s 10,000m.

The 2012 Summer Olympics continue on Day 8 with the second full day of track and field. In the gold medal final of the men’s long jump, the host country of Great Britain got a chance to cheer as Greg Rutherford took home the top prize.

In the finals, the qualifiers were competing for the best long jump of six total attempts, with a cutoff to a field of eight following the first three attempts. Rutherford’s mark of 8.31 meters on his fourth jump held up, awarding him the gold medal after his opponents completed all six of their jumps.

Great Britain has its defining moment of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Jessica Ennis gave the host country its poster moment Saturday night on the track at the Olympic Stadium, winning gold in heptathlon. Ennis scored a total of 6955 points. Russia’s Tatyana Chernova won the silver with 6628 points and the Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Yosypenko came in third, with 6618 points.

Michael Phelps went out a winner in the Olympics.

In what he says will be his last-ever Olympic swim, Phelps helped the United States rally to win a gold medal in the men’s 4x100m medley relay Saturday night in London. The Americans finished in 3:29.35, beating Japan by almost two full seconds (1.91). Australia won the bronze medal in 3:31.58.

In the final women’s pool swimming event at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the United States was once again golden. The U.S. women not only grabbed the gold in the 4x100m medley relay, but set a new world record in the process.

Missy Franklin, Rebecca Soni, Dana Vollmer and Allison Schmitt set the new all-time mark with a time of 3:52.05, beating out second-place Australia by nearly two full seconds to put the exclamation point on yet another dominant Olympiad for American swimmers. Japan finished 3.68 seconds off the pace to claim the bronze in the event.

The 2012 Summer Olympics has dealt with some controversies, as all Olympics seem to do, but in a weird turn of events St. Kitts & Nevis sprinter Kim Collins has been expelled from his team and sent home, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Kim carried his country’s flag in the Opening Ceremony and was set to compete in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.

In what some will consider a disapointing finish, Team USA’s women’s epee fencing team captured the bronze medal over Russia on Saturday night.

The U.S.‘s Courtney Hurley outdueled Russia’s Anna Sivkova in a match that required sudden death after the two were tied 30-30 as time expired.

Saturday’s final of the men’s 1500m freestyle was an enthralling 14 minutes and change. In the end, Sun Yang smashed his own world record by over three seconds to take home the gold medal for China. Connor Jaeger of the United States came in sixth and failed to medal.

The overwhelming favorite in the longest pool swimming event at the Olympic Games nearly got disqualified before the race even began. Just before the starting buzzer, when the swimmers were up on their blocks, Yang dove into the pool early. The scare only lasted a few moments, as the officials determined the false start was a result of crowd noise and not the fault of the swimmer, thus not necessitating a disqualification.

The 2012 Summer Olympics continue on Day 8 with the swimming events winding down to a close. On Saturday afternoon, the women took the blocks to compete in the Women’s 50m Free. The Netherlands’ Ranomi Kromowidjojo was able to best the competition and take home a gold medal with a time of 24.05 for a new Olympic record. Kromowidjojo was part of the gold medal winning 4x100m Relay in the 2008 Games in Beijing, but takes home her first individual medal.

Behind Kromowidjojo, Aliaksandra Herasimenia from Belarus took home a silver medal finishing +0.23 behind Kromowidjojo. Marleen Veldhuis of the Netherlands finished up in third place, taking home the bronze medal and also winning her first ever individual medal in the Olympics.

The second full weekend of competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics brings with it some of the absolute can’t miss events of the London Games, in the water, at the track and on the sand.

Saturday is highlighted with the final Olympic appearance ever from Michael Phelps. He’ll swim the butterfly leg in the men’s’ 4x100m medley relay final, looking to add to his record with career medal No. 22. In track and field, which gets under way in earnest on its second day of events, men’s long jump and then men’s 10,000m are the must-see competitions.

Racewalking is totally an Olympic event. You can make fun of it all you want, but you try not-jogging/not-walking for 20 kilometers sometime and tell me how that goes for you. On Saturday, during the gold medal finals of the men’s 20km racewalk, things didn’t go so well for a certain Russian competitor. He may have been overcome by the vapors.

Everything seems to be going just fine for the Russian racewalker -- whom is almost certainly named Racewalky McGee -- until whoop! Got a little swerve here. Whups whoops gonna faint. Down goes me.

The Brazilian Men’s Basketball team took the court on Saturday morning on Day 8 of the 2012 Summer Olympics to take on China. China entered the game losing all three previous games in group play, looking to pick up their first win. Early on, however, it didn’t look good for China as Brazil jumped out to a big 25-9 lead after the first quarter of play.

China rebounded a bit in the second quarter, but Brazil still entered halftime with a 42-21 lead. The third quarter started off much like the first, with Brazil outscoring China 28-17, and cruising on through the end of the game to walk away with a 98-57 victory.

The second weekend of competition for the 2012 Summer Olympics means continued jostling between the United States and China for the overall medal lead.

As of late-afternoon Greenwich Mean Time in London, the two countries are knotted at 48 overall medals, with the U.S. extending their lead in number of gold medals won based on Friday’s swimming results.

On Day 8 of the 2012 Summer Olympics, the fate of the gold medal for the Women’s Team Pursuit in cycling would be decided between the United States and Great Britain, as the two teams faced off in the gold medal round. It wasn’t much of a match however, as the Brits beat the United States by just over a full five seconds, setting a new world record with a time of 3:14.051.

Great Britain is one of the best in the event, so taking home the silver medal for the United States can’t be seen as too much of a disappointment. The United States finished with a time of 3:19.727

Saturday has been quite a day for the Unites States tennis team at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Just a short while after Serena Williams completed her career golden slam by winning the women’s singles competition, Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan captured their first gold medals in the finals of the men’s doubles event.

The Bryans, who had previously won a bronze medal at the Summer Games, picked up the gold to add to their 11 major championships by defeating a French team of Michael Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Saturday was a big day for the United States shooting team at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. In the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions, American Jamie Lynn Gray set a new Olympic record with a final score of 691.9, shortly after setting an Olympic record in qualifying, at 592 -- just two points shy of tying the world record. This is the first gold medal for Gray. Ivana Maksimovic of Serbia took the silver and Adela Sykorova won the bronze medal for the Czech Republic.

There are plenty of other gold medal events that have already wrapped up on Saturday. In the women’s trap shooting event, no American shooters qualified for the final. Jessica Rossi of Italy took the gold, Zuzana Stefecekova of Slovia won the silver and Delphine Reau of France ended up with the bronze.

Team USA moves to 4-0 and regained control of Group A. Lithuania falls to 1-3, but they should still make the quarterfinals with a win over lowly Tunisia on Monday.

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Serena Williams won the gold medal in women’s singles at the 2012 Summer Olympics on Saturday, absolutely dismantling Maria Sharapova in straight sets, 6-0, 6-1. And really, it wasn’t even that close.

Serena took the first game with three aces, broke Sharapova in the second, and then never looked back, winning the first set, 6-0. Sharapova did not hold serve and win her first game until the second set, when she made it 3-1, roughly 45 minutes into the match. The final took a total of just 63 minutes.

South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius, the first athlete to compete in both the Paralympic and Olympic Games, qualified for the 400m semifinals in London on Saturday. Pistorius posted the second fastest time in the first heat of the day to move on to the semis. He crossed the line in 45:44, just behind the Dominican Republic’s Luguelin Santos, who posted a time of 45:04. It was best time of the year for Pistorius, and the fourth fastest of his career.

Pistorius had been working towards his Olympic debut for years, finally earning entry this summer to provide one of the best stories of the Games. He spoke about his first appearance, and the nervousness coming out of the tunnel for the first time, via Joe Battaglia of NBC:

The host nation pulled off a successful defense of its gold medal in rowing at the men’s four event at Dorney Lake on Saturday. Great Britain edged rival Australia with a time of 6:03:97, leading from start to finish to capture the gold by half a length. The foursome of Andrew Triggs Hodge, Alex Gregory, Pete Reed and Tom James thrilled the home crowd in an event they have historically owned. Team USA came in behind the Aussies to take the Bronze with a time of 6:07:20. It’s the first medal for the USA in this event in 20 years.

The duo of Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking also brought home rowing gold for Britain in the women’s lightweight double sculls. They are the third female pairing to win gold for the home crowd, coming across the line with a time of 7:09:30. Greece jumped out to the quick start but the British took control over the final 750 meters to win the country’s fourth gold of the regatta in a record showing for the host country. The pairing embraced after crossing the finish line more than two seconds ahead of China, who took the silver. Greece earned the bronze, the country’s second medal of the games.

Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig won the women’s triathlon at the 2012 Summer Olympics on Saturday, out-sprinting Sweden’s Lisa Norden and beating her in a photo finish so close that both celebrated, each thinking they had won. Officially they crossed the finish line at the exact same time -- 1:59:48.00 -- but Spirig was awarded the gold medal after a photo review:

(Handout photo by Omega via Getty Images)

Athletics enters day two at the Summer Olympics on Saturday, with five medals decided in the evening session, but early on, all eyes were on the track for the round one heats of the men’s 100 meters, one of marquee events of the entire Games.

With Olympic Stadium in a full roar, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won his heat in 10.09 seconds, a slow time for him, but he stumbled out of the blocks and then completely shut it down over the final 30 meters. It should be noted Bolt ran a 10.20 in the first round at Beijing. Fellow countrymen, and a couple of Bolt’s biggest rivals for gold, Asafa Powell and Yohan Blake, both won their heats, too, finishing in 10.04 seconds and 10.00 seconds, respectively. All three qualified for the semifinals (Sunday, 2:45 p.m. ET).