Long distance swimmers secure more medals

Wednesday, August 20: The medals have kept coming for Team GB today. although they have been of a less lustrous hue than the previous few days. The biggest surprise, and also perhaps the biggest disappointment, of Day 12 was the performance of the British duo of Keri-Anne Payne and Cassie Patten (pictured) in the 10km marathon swim. The pair, teammates from the Stockport Metro club, led for much of the open water race on the Shunyi rowing lake. However, they were overhauled by world champion, Russian Larisa Ilchenko, in the final few metres and had to settle for silver and bronze.

Ilchenko has not been beaten since 2004, but she was made to work hard for gold and only beat Payne by one second in a time of one hour 59 minutes 27.7 seconds. Patten, however, accused one of her rivals of pulling at her feet in the closing stages, and she had an exchange of views with Germany's Angela Maurer of Germany as the pair climbed out of the water.

There was more success on the water when Bryony Shaw won Britain's first ever women's windsurfing medal. She took bronze after finishing second in her final race. However, fellow windsurfer Nick Dempsey could not replicate her success and was ousted from the medal positions in the last race of the competition. He went into the final one-lap race in second but finished behind his rivals to finish in fourth place overall.

Team GB is in line for another medal in the sailing after Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson finished sixth in their final preliminary Star race, leaving them two points behind leaders Sweden. They need to finish in the top eight in tomorrow's medal race to secure a medal.

FIRST POSTED AUGUST 20, 2008