Beijing 2008: Day 7

Whacked fact

Michael Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, owns a number of racehorses named after his protégés. One, which shares the surname of Beijing-bound Peter Vanderkaay, won a prestigious Triple Crown prep race earlier this year. Bowman refuses to name one Phelps because the horse would immediately be under too much pressure to win.

Chinese whispers

Yang Wei ("I want to win 10,000%, 100,000% and many, many other per cents") was favorite to take gold in yesterday's all-round gymnastics final but confusingly a different Yang Wei (so different that this Yang is a woman) is hopinh to retain her badminton doubles title with Zhang Jiewen today, despite being drawn against the Indonesian world No7 pair in the first round.

Brit of all right

Jamie Staff, part of the four-man team sprint selection, will make sure he feels at home in Beijing by taking most of it with him - including his computer, his games console, lots of books and even a coffee machine. His team-mate Chris Hoy was inspired to start cycling by the film ET, in which the eponymous alien makes his earth friend Elliott's bike fly. Sadly the only ET that can help Hoy stands for Extra Training.

Commentator's nightmare

The jumping events start today at the equestrianism center, though your commentary team may struggle to explain the fence designs. They are based on winning efforts from a public competition in which the top prizes went to Flying Horse and Startled Swallow, modeled on a 2,000-year-old Han Dynasty sculpture, and an entry that challenges horses to clear "a teapot-and-teacup set, a pair of chopsticks and a bowl of noodles".

Medal madness

The action moves to the Bird's Nest Stadium for the first time, where the familiar refrain of Wodefit Gesgeshi, Widd Innat Ityopp'ya is almost certain to be ringing out by the day's end. Ethiopia's national anthem will be played whether the women's 10,000m, the first track event to be decided, is won by the favorite, Tirunesh Dibaba, or her nearest challenger, Meseret Defar. Sadly the first two rounds of the men's 100m might get more attention than either of them.

Alternative attractions

Two very contrasting events battle for your attention: Bloodstock, at Catton Hall, Derby, offers three days of heavy metal while over in Rutland Birdfair has apparently been described as "the birdwatcher's Glastonbury". So if you've ever wondered what it would be like to watch a few drugged-up ornithologists dance naked around a teepee at dawn, now's your chance - though that might not be the part of the Glastonbury experience they were hoping to replicate.

Confucius says...

"Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it"

· The genius of the golden rule turns his attention to the competition in today's men's shot put.