Idowu jumped 17m62 in the third round but his effort was eclipsed by Nelson Evora of Portugal who leapt 17m67 to win gold.

Also in the athletics, Dayron Robles of Cuba won the 110m hurdles final and American LaShawn Merrit caused one of the shocks of the track and field events when he raced to victory in the 400m, leaving reigning champion and favourite Jeremy Wariner trailing in second place.

Goldie Sayers broke the British record in the women's javelin but missed out on a medal.

And there was frustration for the men's 4x100m sprint relay team after Craig Pickering messed up the hand-off of the baton for the final leg.

The champions in Athens have been disqualified.

Great Britain continued to break records on day 13 of the Games with a 17th gold in the sailing and a silver in the swimming.

Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson concluded a successful sailing regatta for Team GB with gold in the oldest Olympic sailing discipline, the Star class, in Qingdao.

Percy and Simpson started the medal race in second place and had to battle with Sweden before getting to the line just ahead of them.

The gold provided the perfect finish to Britain's most successful ever regatta.

Marathon swimmer David Davies picked up Team GB's sixth and final swimming medal of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and then admitted he might be "too nice" to compete in the notoriously rough open water event.

Davies won the silver medal in the 10km open water race at the Sunyi Rowing-Canoeing Park near Beijing on Thursday morning local time (August 21).

He led into the final 500m before being overhauled by Maarten van der Weijden, of the Netherlands, and missing out on gold by less than two seconds after almost two hours in the water.

The 23-year-old's brave effort brought the inevitable question of whether he can go one better in four year's time in 'home waters' in London.

"At the moment I don't want to do it again and I think if I said that to my coach now I may get away with it," said Davies.

"But in four years time I'd really like to swim in London, where apparently the race will be in the Serpentine which will be a fantastic spectacle."

Britain's Tonia Couch finished an impressive eighth in the final of diving's women's 10m platform after an excellent performance in the Water Cube.

The 19-year-old produced a consistent display and although she ended up 101.20 points outside the medal places, the level of performance she displayed in her first individual Olympic final was encouraging.

Team-mate Stacie Powell made a bright start but tailed away after the first two rounds, but at 22 she will also be able to look towards the London Olympics in 2012 with hopes of being a strong medal contender.

Keep checking the website for updates from Beijing throughout the day.