Meanwhile, the all-conquering Chinese table tennis squad began their quest for a sweep of four gold medals on a winning note, with the trio of Zhang Yining, Wang Nan and Guo Yue thrashing Singapore 3-0 in the women's team final.

China's table tennis players Zhang Yining (L), Guo Yue (C) and Wang Nan pose with their gold medals after defeating Singapore's team to win the gold medal during the women's team table tennis final match of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the Peking University gymnasium in Beijing on August 17, 2008. [Agencies]

After four golds on Saturday, Britain's sailors, rowers and cyclists added four more to lift their total to 11 golds, moving them up to third place in the overall medal table.

At the Water Cube, Germany's Britta Steffen won the women's 50m freestyle by the slightest margin to add to her 100m freestyle triumph.  Steffen touched home in an Olympic record time of 24.06 seconds, just one hundredth of a second ahead of U.S. five-time Olympian Dara Torres.

Grant Hackett's bid for a third straight title in the men's 1,500m freestyle was foiled by Tunisia's Ous Mellouli. Melloui held off the Australian veteran in the late stage and finished in 14:40.84 to give the African country its first Olympic swimming gold. Hackett was second in 14:41.53.

Australia defeated the United States to win the women's 4x100m medley relay in a world-record time of 3:52.69.  The previous world mark of 3:55.74 was also set by Australia at last year's world championships in Melbourne.

Romania took its first track and field gold with Constantina Tomescu in the women's marathon. The 38-year-old veteran beat a field of 81 competitors to finish the 42.195-kilometer race in a season-best time of two hours, 26.44 minutes.

"The experience of age helped me," Tomescu told reporters. "I have raced a lot before, I know a lot about running."

Kenya's Catherine Ndereba was second in 2:27.06, just a second ahead of Zhou Chunxiu of China.

"I think I performed quite well today. Although I couldn't catch Ndereba, I tried my best and I'm really satisfied with the result," said Zhou.

The women's steeplechase, which was making its Olympic debut in Beijing, witnessed a world record performance from Russian Gulnara Galkina-Samitova, and the hammer throw gold went to Slovenia's Primoz Kozmus.

Galkina-Samitova, 30, finished in 8 minutes 58.81 seconds, beating her own world record by more than three seconds.

World record holder Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia clocked 27:01.17 to retain his Olympic 10,000 meters title, while Cameroon's Francoise Mbango Etone also successfully defended her Olympic crown in triple jump with a leap of 15.39m.

In tennis, world number one Rafael Nadal of Spain crushed Chilean Fernando Gonzalez in straight sets to claim the men's singles title,  while Elena Dementieva beat fellow Russian Dinara Safina 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 to win the women's singles gold.

There were 37 gold medals at stake on Sunday, the most of a single day in the August 8-24 Olympics.