Day 9: Fatigue

Another remarkable day of sport in the 2008 Olympics. Sadly, your correspondent may have been somewhat waylaid by a night drinking mojitos. Sorry about that. Still, in some ways it gave me a product at least as meaningful as Paula Radcliffe: eight farts, 3 pisses and a big ol' crap upon returning home.

So, analysis of Rafael Nadal's gold medal performance will have to wait. As will any circular and impossible arguments regarding Michael Phelps - now with a record-breaking 8th gold medal and, I assume, the stomach muscles of a pensioner - and his position in the pantheon of sporting greats. I will, however, pause to reflect that even in spite of two of our more trumpeted medal hopes - Radcliffe and Kelly Sotherton - falling by the wayside today, a weekend's prolonged success on boats and on cycles has left Great Britain a scarcely believable third place overall in the medal table. It surely can't last, even with the bankers of more guaranteed medals tomorrow in the velodrome. Which is all the more reason to bask in it now.

By way of compensation for this pickled stream of semi-consciousness, I have prepared an illustrated guide to today's Olympic action. And here it is. Again, sorry about this.