Olympics: Phillips Idowu Falls Short in Triple Jump

It was an evening of nearly but not quite for Britain at the Bird's Nest stadium. Phillips Idowu, favorite for gold in the triple jump, finished with silver. He was inched out by the 2007 world champion, Portugal's Nelson Evora.

Idowu twice took the lead in the competition, with his first jump setting an impressive mark of 17.51m. Evora responded with 17.56 on his second jump. Idowu then retook first position with his third of jump of 17.62m, only to see Evora again go 5cm further with his next effort of 17.67. Neither man could improve on those distances. Idowu had three attempts at overhauling Evora, but failed with all of them. Britain's other contender, Larry Achike, finished down the field in seventh place, his best jump being 17.17m.

Earlier Goldie Sayers set a new British national javelin record of 65.75m with her first throw, but it was only good enough for fourth place. She struggled as the weather conditions took a turn for the worse. The Czech Republic's Barbora Spotakova won the gold with her final throw of 71.42m.

The two grandstand events on the track were the men's 400m and the 110m hurdles. The first produced an American one-two-three, as LaShawn Merritt beat his compatriot Jeremy Wariner by almost an entire second. In difficult, wet, conditions Merritt ran a personal best of 43.75. David Neville slipped and fell face first across the line, pinching the bronze as he did so.With Liu Xiang missing, the 110m hurdles was won with ease by Cuban world record holder Dayron Robles in 12.93 seconds, ahead of the USA's David Oliver.

Squeezed in between the finals, Britain's Lisa Dobriskey qualified third fastest for the women's 1500m final. The women's 4x100m relay team also made their final, but the male team missed out as Craig Pickering ran outside the changeover box on the final leg, though he did run on to cross the line regardless.

In an event affected by heavy rain, the US men's and women's teams also crashed out as they both dropped the baton.