Jamaica’s fantastic form in the sprints at the games continued with Veronica Campbell-Brown successfully defending her 200m title. Her victory followed the double sprint golds by Usain Bolt in the 100m and 200mt, a clean sweep in the women's 100m and gold in the 400m hurdles for Melanie Walker. She powered to victory in the Bird's Nest Stadium on Thursday in a personal best of 21.74 sec. Athens runner-up Allyson Felix of the US again had to settle for silver in 21.93sec with another Kerron Stewart, also of Jamaica, winning the bronze.

Britain's Phillips Idowu lost out on Olympic gold by 5cm in the triple jump final. Idowu produced his best jump of the year to lead with 17.62m after the third round, only to see Nelson Evora of Portugal then leap 17.67m in round four.