Sporting Life - Summer Olympics - Beijing 2008

1650 That's it from us today, thanks for your company and be sure to join us again early on Friday (around the 0200h BST mark) for what promises to be an action-packed day. The athletics programme gets under way with Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell in action in the heats of the 100 metres. Kelly Sotherton is the focus of British interest on the opening day of the heptathlon, while team-mate Jo Pavey has a medal chance in the 10,000m. There is plenty going on away from the track, including the sixth leg of Michael Phelps' bid for history. The 'Baltimore Bullet' goes in the final of the 200m individual medley at 0345h. Should be a good one.

1645 Tennis - A bad day for the Williams sisters is complete as Venus follows Serena through the exit door. There was no tie-break required as Li broke serve en route to closing out a 7-5 7-5 victory over Venus, much to the delight of her home crowd.

1638 Tennis - It is now 5-5 with serve in the second set between Venus and Li, looks to be heading for a tie-break, while Djokovic is about to level at one-set apiece with Monfils. Gonzalez has also taken the opening set off Mathieu 6-4. All these matches are quarter-finals.

1630 Friday's schedule looks to be a cracker with the start of the athletics and track cycling. Britain go for glory in the team sprint, while for the purists there is the women's all-around gymnastics final to look forward to.

1620 Tennis - Venus Williams is fighting for survival in the second set against Li, it's 4-3 to the American on serve. Meanwhile in the men's event, Novak Djokovic is a set down to Gael Monfils, and Fernando Gonzalez leads Paul-Henri Mathieu 5-3 in the opener.

1559GOLD Equestrian - Germany have won the team dressage gold medal in Hong Kong, Netherlands won the silver and Denmark the bronze.

1545 Tennis - Li Na takes the first set against Venus Williams - a great fightback after being 4-1 down, Li is obviously being carried along by the superb home crowd.

1544 Hockey - GB now face Japan and need to keep on winning but it was a good display against the Black Sticks - good to see Cath is still turned in, although I've been given a telling off for insinuating that she was old - many apologies old girl!

1541 Tennis - Li Na has come storming back against Venus from 4-1 down to break and lead 6-5 and will now serve for the first set.

1523 Tennis - A shock in the women's tournament, as Serena Williams is beaten 3-6 6-4 6-3 by Russia's Elena Dementieva inthe quarter-finals.

1522 Hockey - The final whistle ghoes and GB earn a tough 2-1 victory against New Zealand to keep their semi-final chances still alive - well played girls!

1517 Hockey - My old hockey consultant Cath Blake has been back on - saying of the disallowed goal - "It was a rubbish decision in the hockey. You can hit the ball if it stays low enough to hit the backboard on a short corner, but you can hit any part of the goal if it is a drag flick. Should have been a goal, but at least we've got back on top. Cath's an expert so that's the final word.

1502 Hockey - Eat my goal! GB have gone 2-1 ahead through Cullen's superbly worked penalty corner. Might not be everyone's cup of tea hockey, but football fans especially will appreciate the routine of settig up the strike, then dummying and flicking it along to Kritsa Cullen who spanked it into the net..one from the training ground as they say!

1450 Basketball - Revenge gained for the 'Redeem Team' as the USA stars of the NBA batter Greece 92-69. Bad memories for the Americans as they only came third in Athens four years ago, somehow! Bfeore the Greeks rubbed salt into the wounds by knocking them out of the 2006 World Champs - but it's one back for Team USA today.

1447 Equestrian - Laura Bechtolsheimer on board Mistral Hojris goes in the dressage and individually she has gone down to 16th and team wise Gb fall behind Sweden and probably out of the bronze medal reckoning.

1439 Tennis - Li Na has just started her quarter-final against Venus WIlliams - the Chinese is the first ever to reach the last eight at the Olympics and there is a big crowd in for this one.

1439 Hockey - It looks like GB have just had a goal disallowed just on the stroke of half time, it seems a harsh call, although I'm not 100 percent sure of what the call was for in the first place! Anyone know the rules?

1431 Hockey - Danson pulls one back for GB and it's all square at 1-1, she did well to volley that in high on the stick after the ball looped up from close range - game on!

1430 Hockey - New Zealand take the lead against Great Britain as Gemma Flynn slots in an open goal after a penalty corner, the Brits need to dig in now to get back on level terms.

1422 Hockey - In GB's crucial women's match against New Zealand it is still 0-0 with 15 minutes left of the first half.

1420 Tennis - Roger Federer has been sent packing in the men's singles by American James Blake - earning his first ever victory over the former world number one.

1414 Boxing - Saunders does better in the final round to bring it back to 11-7 but Vastine had enough in hand to cruise to victory in the end and cause something of an upset to dump out Saunders.

1409 Boxing - Vastine is playing it well in the third round, and moves away from the Brit to take a 10-3 lead, Saunders beat him by 17 points in Chicago but is boxing badly here.

1406 Boxing - Saunders has been aggressive but has been picked off by the Frenchman who leads 7-3 at the end of the second round, although his last point was clearly a slap on the back of the head - he was even warned by the ref but somehow the ringside judges still scored it!

1359 Boxing - Britain's Bradley Saunders is striding to the ring to take on Alexis Vastine of France in the light welterweight competition.

1357 Tennis - Roger Federer is fighting for his Olympic life against James Blake, and has broken back to level at 4-4 here, Blake has never beaten Federer so maybe he'll feel some nerves as he tries to close this out, but he serves to love for 5-4.

1352 Swimming - Lizzie Simmonds sets a new British record in the 200m backstroke to make the semis, and Gemma Spofforth joins her after her heat, some good swimming from the Brits here!

1340 Swimming - Phelps does what's required to make the semi-finals, taking it easy down the first 50m before storming back to finish second behind Serbia's Milorad Cavic, who won in an Olympic record time of 50.76 seconds. Phelps clocked 50.87s to comfortably progress to the semi-finals.

1338 Swimming - Michael Phelps is taking part in the heats of the 100 metres butterfly shortly. Bad news for Great Britain in the heat six as both Todd Cooper and Michael Rock finish well off the pace in fourth and fifth place respectively. They miss the semi-final.

1331 Tennis - Switzerland's Roger Federer has lost the first set 6-4 against James Blake of the United States.

1320 Swimming - Cassie Patten joined Adlington in the 800 metres freestyle final with a third-place performance in her heat. Adlington leads the qualifiers while Patten just got in by three-tenths of a second, knocking four seconds off her lifetime best in the process. The final takes place on Saturday at 0300h (GMT), set the alarm clocks (or time your arrival home from the weekly binge-drinking session) accordingly.

1315GOLDFencing - Ukraine upset hosts China with a 45-44 victory in the women's fencing team sabre final.

1306 Badminton - It's all over for Emms and Robertson, losing the second set 21-12 in quick time. Lee HyoJung and, in particular, Lee Yongdae were superb throughout, That defeat brings the curtain down on Emms' badminton career. "It's been an amazing partnership and it's a shame it has to come to an end," says Robertson as the tears flow in the post-match interview.

1258 Badminton - The British fightback is on, four points on the bounce allow Emms and Robertson to draw level at 8-8 in the second set.

1256 Swimming - Rebecca Adlington continues her fine form in the pool by winning her 800 metre freestyle heat in an Olympic record 8:18.06, which is also the second fastest time in history. Adlington's Great Britain team-mate Cassie Patten goes in the next heat.

1255 Badminton - Not looking good for Emms and Robertson as they fall 8-5 behind early in the second set...

1251GOLDJudo - Naidan Tuvshinbayar has given Mongolia something to cheer about at the judo, claiming the country's first ever gold medal in the sport in the men's 100kg. Askhat Zhitkeyev of Kazakhstan claimed silver with the bronzes going to Azerbaijan's Movlud Miraliyey and Henk Grol of the Netherlands.

1247 Badminton - After leading 20-14, the Korean pair eventually close out the opening set 21-19 against Emms and Robertson. The British duo have been largely outplayed and their Olympic dream is now hanging by a thread. Can they turn it round in the second set?

1237 Basketball - Yi Jianlian has revealed China's tactics involving the huge figure of Yao Ming - "We have Yao for our offense. We just pass the ball to him and let him shoot." So in short, give it to the big guy and let him do the rest...30 points against Cuba for the big man though so it must be a winner.

1234GOLD Wrestling - The sizeable wrestlers of the 120kg category have sorted themselves out and Mijain Lopez of Cuba has walked away with the gold.

1227 Badminton - Emms and Robertson start their match against Korean duo Lee Hyojung and Lee Yongdae - it's 3-3 at the moment.1220GOLDJudo - Gold number 22 for the hosts - Chinese judoka Yang Xiuli has won the women's 78kg competition - they are truly flying in the medals table!

1215 Badminton - Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson are next up on court,while in a couple of heats' time Rebecca Adlingtonand Cassie Patten go in the 800m - Adlington must be furious after the gaffe made in the relay!

1207 Swimming - Old man Mark Foster, the GB flag bearer finishes sixth in his heat - and the time is not good enough to get him into the semis im afraid so that seems to be the end of his Olympic career.

1205 GB - Chris Griffiths has gone for Great Britain to get 13 gold and take seventh inthe medals table - he asks if that is ambitious? I'll go with that - I'm always an optimist though!

1157 Swimming - It's swimming heat times again - and inevitably it's an Olympic record as Amaury Leveraux breaks the men's 50m time - these are the real speedsters of the pool

1145 Wrestling - News of a supurb wiggy strop from Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian, who almost got stuck into the judges after losing his semi-final. He then won bronze but stepped off the podium and threw his medal away in disgust. "I don't care about this medal. I wanted gold," he said. And he then quit the sport! "This will be my last match. I wanted to take gold, so I consider this Olympics a failure." Toys, pram....as the lesser known saying goes he's lost his dog!

1138GOLD Wrestling - More bling for the big men in the wrestling ring, and it's Aslambek Khustov of Russia who has won the Greco-Roman 96kg title - these really are the big boys fighting it out now!

1133 Basketball - Lithuania beat Russia 86-79 in their men's meeting.

1124 Medals - As for Team GB, we do have some serious hopes this time around, Phillips Idowu and Christine Ohuruogo the major ones, who do you think will bring home the bacon for the Brits? Personally I feel Team GB will do a lot better in the rowing and cycling medal-wise than the athletics.

1123 Medals - Tom Laws, aptly from Crystal Palace, wants to know what impact the Athletics will have on the medal table. China are scorching away with an incredible 21 golds, but I do think they will struggle on ther track where the USA will come storming back I predict.

1101 Archery - Just to put that result into perspective, Korea have won every women's Olympic title since 1984 and have not only won but dominated the event around the globe, they were the top dogs, head cheeses etc etc, but now China have cut them down to size - while adding to their hefty sack of gold medals.

1100GOLDArchery - Massive upset in archery - Zhang Juan Juan has single-handedly taken on the Koreans and come out with the gold medal, breaking the stranglehold the Koreans had on the event.

1059 Hockey - A message from avid hockey fan Cath Blake - "Don't forget GB v NZ women's hockey at 14:00. Must win for GB!!" Well said Cath - come on GB!

1046GOLD Wrestling - At last some more gold medal action! And it's in the wrestling as Andrea Minguzzi of Italy takes the Greco-Roman 84kg category.

1045 Archery - Yun Ok-Hee takes the bronze medal in the archery after a South v North Korea battle

1014 Archery - China's Zhang Juan Juan is at it again, this time taking out Korean world number one Yun Ok-Hee in the semi-finals to go for gold i n the final.

1000 Table Tennis - China's women have powered into the semi-finals by beating Austria and look nail-on for ping pong gold. Dont forget to email me in your views, weather reports, or any questions or tips for possible winners to paul.higham@bskyb.com

0956 Archery - The women acrhers are a hardy bunch though, they're not scared of a bit of rain and they are out there firing away at a soggy target - Korea are back on track with Park Sung-Hyun winning through to the semis.

0946 Basketball - With all this rain around let's head indoors! Lituania have just tipped off against Russia in the men's competition - the weather will not stop the likes of volleyball, handball and badminton luckily - stay tuned for Emms and Robertson at around 12.15.

0938 Table Tennis - The outdoor tennis resembles a normal day at Wimbledon with the covers on and rain lashing the stands, but indoors the ping pong is flowing with Sweden's men beating Brazil 3-0 while in the women's section Singapore beat the Netherlands 3-0.

0929 It's soggy everywhere in Beijing today it seems, as you are probably aware of - give us a glimpse into the future perhaps at what London 2012 is going to look like - judging ont he last couple of summer's in good old Britain.

0929 Archery - A big news flash from the woemn's archery, as a Korean actually loses! Zhang Juan Juan of China has beaten Hyun-Jung Joo 106-101 at a very soggy arrows venue.

0920 It's time for me to hand over to Paul Higham who will hopefully be able bring you news of British success later on today in sports such as badminton, where Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms continue their emotional quest for gold.

0916 Basketball - The men's basketball competition continues to entertain the host nation with China having few problems in their 85-68 triumph over Angola. They needed that to realistically keep their hopes of a medal alive.

0908 Boxing - The Irish eyes are smiling in the boxing arena after Kenny Egan's 10-2 victory over Bahram Muzaffer in the light-heavyweight division. He's edging closer to a shot at the medals.

0905 The feedback continues to filter through to me and Simon Thompson has this to say: "Quick change of subject. I am originally from England but now live in South Africa. You may have noticed SA's lack of medals so the Olympic flame isn't burning too bright here at the moment. However you won't believe the hype about tomorrow's men's hockey game Great Britain and South Africa. SA seem to have more skill but the GB team is playing some good hockey." I think hockey is a brilliant Olympic sport when your team is doing well - who can forget the 1988 final! It can create the same find of atmosphere as an FA Cup final and I for one are desperately rooting for the Brits to go far. I must also say thanks to Martyn Addison who says: "I am really enjoying your commentary. Keeping me entertained as well as informed on what's happening over there.

0855GOLDShooting - Eventually we have a medal winner to report on as Chiara Cainero claims gold in the final of the women's Skeet. The Italian finished with a total score of 93 but needed to hit two more targets in a three-way shoot-off for victory. Kimberly Rhode of the USA takes silver while Germany's Christine Brinker wins bronze.

0850 Water Polo - There's an oppotunity to give you some results in water polo - an event that Great Britain never seems to enter. But why? I think we should target this sport for London 2012 because it's great fun and I'm sure it can't be too hard to master. I used to love playing it at school, although we made it harder by using bricks as goals and you could only ever score by heading the ball rather than throwing it. Anyway, those results from today are Croatia 13 Germany 5, Serbia 4 United States 2, Hungary 8 Spain 5, Montenegro 10 Greece 6.

0845 Canoe/Kayak - The umbrellas are up everywhere at the Shunyi Olympic Canoeing Park so, as you might have thought, the competitions there have also been delayed. What a wash out. With the Premier League football season about to kick-off, the Olympics can't afford a slow day like this if they don't want those highly-paid prima donnas pushing them aside from the limelight.

0840 Rowing - If everything had gone to schedule we'd know by now if British pairing Helen Casey and Hester Goodsell had reached the final of the lightweight women's double sculls. But Shunyi has been hit by torrential rain, thunder and lightning so we're still not sure when the rowing can begin today.

0838 Baseball - The weather is just so dreadful that USA's baseball team are still unable to complete their win over Holland. The match should have finished hours ago but they still have an innings to play and lead 7-0. Goodness knows when they will get round to finishing it.

0834 Beach Volleyball and Volleyball - Out on the sand German duo Goller and Ludwig have beaten their Greek opponents in the women's competition while in the men's volleyball, Russia have claimed a 3-1 win over Brazil.

0830 I have a chance to publish some reader feedback now and James Clarke in Australia says: "Originally coming from England and having recently moved to Australia, I have of course been showing my support for team GB over here in Perth, but at the moment unfortunately I do not have much to shout about. Come on Great Britain! Lets hopefully pick up some medals in the athletics." We have a few chances on the track and in the field and I'm pinning my hopes of Phillips Idowu in the triple jump.

0827 Judo - It's all over for Rogers after her last-chance saloon defeat to her German opponent. Britain's last remaining judo hope is female heavyweight Karina Bryant, who is in action tomorrow.

0818 Judo - Great Britain's Michelle Rogers is back in action against Germany's Heide Wollert in the repechage so lets keep our fingers crossed she can get through this one.

0810 Boxing - Billy Joe Saunders is fuming with the points scoring after his defeat earlier this morning. He said: "The scoring here is so bad for an Olympic Games. It's unbelievable. I felt my performance was exceptional, but I've had better days. I felt I should have had six or seven points for my body shots, but they're not scoring body shots. You might as well do fencing, not boxing, if they're going to do that.''

0808 Rowing - There's been a thunderstorm causing no end of problems in Beijing and the rowing action out on Shunyi lake has been delayed as a result. If this persists the races might have to be postponed until Friday.

0800 For those of you just waking up in Britain, it's not been the most exciting of mornings as far as medals are concerned. We've seen our swimmers qualify for some finals but in other sports it's not been so great. Let me know what you think of our chances for the rest of the Games by emailing christopher.hammer@bskyb.com .

0753 Boxing - The bell sounds to signal the end of the bout and both men think they've won! The scores were level at 5-5 but fortunately for Great Britain it's Jeffries' hand which is raised! What a relief.

0750 Boxing - It's been a very quiet day for British athletes in Beijing today but at the moment Jeffries is looking good against Alvarez. He's leading by a single point in the fourth round.

0745 Greco-Roman Wrestling - There's been millions of qualifying round matches throughout the morning - too many for me to keep on top of anyway - but in a few hours time we will be crowning champions of the 84kg, 96kg and 120kg weight classes.

0740 Boxing - It's now the turn of Great Britain's Tony Jeffries inside the boxing ring as he fights Eleider Alvarez of Columbia.

0735 Sailing - It's about this time of the morning when I give you the updates on whether Great Britain are ruling the waves but I'm afraid that will have to wait because racing in all classes has yet to begin because of a lack of wind in the waters of the Yellow Sea off Qingdao.

0730 Baseball and Softball - As I thought might happen, the USA baseball team are blowing Holland away 6-0 while in softball today the Australians have defeated China 3-1 and Canada have thrashed Holland 9-2. Both these sports are made for the North Americans.

0722 Judo - It is curtains for Peter Cousins in the judo after his conqueror Levan Zhorzholiani has lost his next match. But there is some brighter news for Michelle Rogers because she will get a chance in the repechage after Gyeongmi Jeong won her next match. Let's hope she takes her opportunity although the best she can now get is a bronze.

0715 Handball - If you're interested in handball we can inform you that the Germans have sneaked a narrow 25-23 win over Egypt - a nation they have also defeated in volleyball today - while Poland beat Brazil 28-25.

0706 Baseball - Just in case you're wondering how the USA are getting on in their baseball group game with Holland, we can inform you it's been delayed due to the bad weather. Surely that is an event the States must win. It would be criminal for them to fail wouldn't it? If so the team who wins the MLB in America shouldn't be crowned the World Series champions!

0702 Boxing - Of much greater interest to British readers at least is the sad news that Billy Joe Saunders has been comprehensively out-fought by his Cuban opponent. I wonder what the future holds for the youngster now? That was a really harsh lesson.

0700 Beach Volleyball - I've been keeping you up-to-date on the beach volleyball results all morning for some strange reason (I'm sure someone must follow it) so I might as well continue. The Austrian pair of Schwaiger & Schwaiger have defeated the Mexicans of Candelas and Garcia in a women's group match.

0655 Boxing - Great Britain's Billy Joe Saunders is currently in action against Carlos Banteaux and he's made a stirring comeback having fallen 4-1 down early doors. The score is now 5-4 in the Cuban's favour at the start of the third round.

0645 Volleyball - There's been two completed matches in the men's group stages today with Germany beating Egypt by three sets to nil and earlier Italy scored a similar triumph over Venezuela.

0641 Boxing - It's not long before Great British welterweight hope Billy Joe Saunders fights Carlos Banteaux Suarez and shortly after that Tony Jeffries will be looking to continue his bid for glory at light heavyweight against Eleider Alvarez.

0636GOLDGymnastics - It was a very long wait for the judges score of just over 14.775 but it was enough for the consistent Wei Yang to secure gold ahead of Kohei Uchimura of Japan and France's Benoit Caranobe. The Chinese sensation cups his hands to his ears as the home fans go wild. That was thoroughly entertaining and you have to take your hats off to the man, who settled for silver in Sydney and missed out completely in Athens. He's a great character and he delivered when it mattered most. Britain's Daniel Keatings finished down in 20th.

0632 Gymnastics - The roof has been lifted off the National Indoor Stadium as Wei Yang lands safely from the high bar and he's almost certainly won gold. Terrific effort and what a superb crowd reaction - the Chinese public have really taken to these Games and the athletes have risen to the occasion in nearly every sport.

0630 Judo - Britain's misery in judo at this summer's Games continues with Michelle Rogers suffering a narrow and frustrating defeat against Korea's Gyeongmi Jeong. Oh dear.

0620 Gymnastics - In what's proving to be a thrilling men's all-around competition Kohei Uchimura of Japan has flown into gold medal position and the pressure is now on China's Wei Yang to deliver on the high bar.

0612GOLDShooting - China's Du Li has won gold in the women's 50m Rifle Three Positions event with an Olympic record score of 690.3. Katerina Emmons of Czech Republic scored 687.7 to win silver while Cuba's Eglis Yaima Cruz takes bronze with 687.6 points.

0611 Basketball - Another men's match has finished and Australia have battered the Iran side 106-68 in Group A.

0608 Shooting - The long-drawn out skeet qualification is finally over and unfortunately Britain's Elena Little has finished down in 14th with a score of 66, just one point less than a top eight place.

0602 Judo - There's been a huge shock in the judo. The champion from four years ago, Keiji Suzuki of Japan has been thrown back to Athens by Mongolia's huge Tuvshinbayar Naidan, who has claimed a stunning victory.0600 Richard Grieve has got in touch and says: "I'm an ex-pat in Shanghai and am very much enjoying your Olympic updates. Just one thing, can you please stop the posts about Phelps. Its starting to turn into a broken record. If it is of that much interest to people, then why not set up a specific 'Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian - Discuss?' forum." OK, point taken. But before we close the page on Phelps for one day, I just want to post an update to the revised medal table after Darren Harlock spotted a mistake. Here it is: 1. China 2. Korea 3. Germany 4. USA 5. Australia 6. Japan 7. Michael Phelps. Quite rightly he stripped USA of the golds which Phelps had won.

0555 Gymnastics - The men's all-around event is drawing to a close and it's hardly surprising to see Chinese star Wei Yang leading the way with one discipline to go. Britain's Daniel Keatings is well off the pace but the future is bright for the youngster.

0548 Beach Volleyball - There are a few results for us to catch up on in the women's competition. China's pairing of Xue and Zhang Xi had few problems beating their South African opponents 2-0 while Cuba and Brazil have picked up wins over Japan and Greece respectively.

0545 Hockey - Earlier the hosts China suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to the Dutch in the women's hockey and in the most recent match today Germany have claimed a 4-2 win over the USA.

0540 Judo - We've had a British blip in the judo this morning with Peter Cousins getting beat by Levan Zhorzholiani in the men's 100kg class but hopefully he'll get a chance in the repechage later. Fellow Brit Michelle Rogers competes in the women's 78kg event soon.

0532 Swimming - Earlier we saw how Fran Halsall qualified for the final of the 100m freestyle and here is some reaction. She says: "After the relay I was physically and emotionally drained so to get in and do another 53-point this morning was great. I have got a night off now so I can get focused and ready for tomorrow morning."

0530 We've had an enthusiastic response to the women's 4x200m freestyle final earlier this morning. Christopher Dubuis says: "Best one of the games so far, even beats Rice's 200m medley final yesterday. The third leg was what did it, and that was an 800m swimmer! Only one word - WOW." He has also drawn up a rather interesting medal table which adds to the Michael Phelps debate. It reads: 1. China 2. United States 3. Korea 4. Germany 5. Japan 6. Michael Phelps 7. Australia.

0522 Gymnastics - Let's get back to the men's all-around competition and as it stands our British hope Daniel Keatings has dropped down to 20th. That said he's only done three events so far while the leaders Wei Yang and Yibing Chen of China have both completed four. It's starting to get very exciting now.

0515 I know the swimming has finished for a few hours at least but I want to publish this email from Mark Devison regarding Michael Phelps, who will continue his gold medal quest tomorrow. He says: "We should not compare events and stop trying to decide who is the greatest single Olympian. Why not be happy to say that Micheal Phelps is the greatest Olympic swimmer to date, and arrive at a list of greatest Olympians in their own events.For me the gold medal winner of the Decathlon is always the current greatest Olympian." I love the Decathlon, it's a brilliant event. Who else is itching for the athletics to start? Email in your views to christopher.hammer@bskyb.com

0507 Archery - Sorry about the wait, I was just grabbing a much-needed snack. I'm disappointed to say however that Folkard has been knocked out of the archery competition after Hayakawa claimed an easy 106-97 victory.

0452 Archery - Naomi Folkard is in action against Japan's Nami Hayakawa in the women's last 16 of the archery and so far she trails by nine points with two ends to play.

0445 Gymnastics - The men's all-around event is going on right now and Great Britain's Daniel Keatings is looking good so far and is in with a chance of earning a podium place. But still a long way to go.

0443GOLDSwimming - Australia have been crowned the champions of the 4x200m freestyle relay and what a race it was as they took six seconds off the world record. A partisan crowd roared the Chinese quartet home to finish second while the USA have to be content with the bronze. That concludes the swimming events today and now it will give us a chance to concentrate on other sports taking place today.

0438 Here's a couple of emails I've received around the world. Karen Rowe says: "I'm a British ex-pat working in Taipei and rely on your clockwatch. I am unable to get ANY Olympic coverage here, in spite of having cable tv and a digibox! Has anyone else told you about a recent medal table in America? USA were put at top inspite of the Chinese clearly having more golds. We definitely have some propaganda issues! Many thanks for your informative and entertaining comments - keep up the good work and remember to eat something!" That's very funny actually, I haven't eaten a thing yet, as I expected might happen. Jim Bedford says: "Keep up the good work! You are my only source of information on the Olympics! I'm in Spain - no British TV; I can find nothing on the Internet to compare with your column. So I'm relying on you to keep the news flowing." Thanks very much, I appreciate those words.

0430 Shooting - Elena Little is down in 12th after the second round of the skeet qualification while China's Ning Wei leads the way.

0425 We've just seen the medal ceremony for the women's 200m butterfly in which China claimed gold and silver. John Muse says: "My wife who is Chinese is going bonkers with everything to do with Olympics, although we are in Singapore.Not normally intersted in sport she usually wathches Chinese soaps, but if sewing was an Olympic event I think she would watch that!" I love how the Olympics brings people together like this.

0418 Swimming - James Goddard has finished third in his semi, behind Lochte and Thiago Pereira and this means he's made the final along with Tancock, who was seventh fastest overall.

0413 Swimming - In the first semi of the men's 200m individual medley, Michael Phelps has surprisingly won it (!) while Great Britain's Liam Tancock finished a creditable fourth and he's in with a chance of qualification. James Goddard goes in the next race.

0411 Swimming - We've just had the semi-finals of the women's 200m backstroke and the fastest two qualifiers were Rebecca Soni and hot favourite Leisel Jones.

0400 Basketball - I forgot to say that Spain have beaten Germany 72-59 in a men's Group B match. My favourite Olympic basketball moment is when USSR defeated America in that controversial final of 1972. Not that I'm glad USA lost and I agree it was highly controversial to say the least but in a way sport needs dramatic scenes like those. I can't imagine something like that ever happening again. It's good that the American team stayed true to their principles and never accepted the silver medals. I wonder what happened to all that silver?

0358 Simon Keemer has got in touch to respond to Nick Moger. He says: "The possibility of Team GB winning medals doesn't affect my comment. If there were a bunch of Brits going for swimming gold, I still would think there is too much swimming. For example - I am not clamouring to watch 3 hours of skeet shooting because Team GB has a medal hope. American television has been showing at least three hours of swimming every night since the Olympics began, and it gets repetitive. I would love to see some of the canoeing, sailing, handball, hockey, etc. I think that is what makes the Olympics so great - having all these very disparate athletes all competing at the same time. From watching American television you would think that swimming and gymnastics are the only events that have been scheduled for the past five days. Oh, and Christopher, I completely agree that the sports where the Olympics is not the pinnacle should also be considered for eviction! On another subject, are you guys in England getting the news reports on the ticketing problems in Beijing? Apparently there are thousands of people upset that they can't get tickets as all the events are officially sold out, but in actuality, most of the events have had huge empty spaces in the stadium." Does that mean you want me to shut up about the skeet qualification?! In regards to the ticketing problem, it seems to happen at every major sporting events - mainly down to corporate seating going to people who don't actually like sport. Instead they go and eat the free food but don't sit on the seats! Awful really.

0353GOLDSwimming - In a thrilling 100m freestyle final France's Alain Bernard has snatched a famous triumph ahead of Eamon Sullivan but there is no medal for the defending champion Pieter van den Hoogenband. Bronze goes to Brazil's Cesar Cielo Filho and American Jason Lezak. It was a tie between the two.

0346GOLD Swimming - Unreal scenes at the Water Cube with China claiming a one-two in the final of the 200m butterfly final. Zige Liu takes the gold in a world record time of 2:04.18 with team-mate Liuyang Jiao claiming the silver ahead of Jessicah Schipper. It was a stunning race and the crowd are going bonkers!

0340 Swimming - Following Kosuke Kitajima's medal ceremony, it's now time for the women's 200m butterfly final.

0330 Swimming - More encouraging news for Great Britain because Gregor Tait has qualified for the final of the 200m backstroke having finished fourth in his semi with a time of 1:56.72. Predictably the laid back Lochte won the race. I was hoping this US youngster would damage Phelps' hopes in Beijing but so far he's only helped him in the relays!

0325 Just before that takes place, here's an email from Stephen Oliver: "My response to the head and shoulders comment about Phelps from the other folks is 'yes, he is quite tall.' He is phenomenal indeed, but will he be at the next Olympics? We live in an age of instant fame and yesterday's heroes are often forgotten. I agree with others that have responded that soccer should be shoved out of the Olympics if it means that only a select few 'famous' teams seem to qualify. If soccer is to be an Olympic sport, it should be restricted to under-19's, or even under-17's, and can't include any country that has ever been to the world cup or any conference finals (e.g., Euro's)." Stephen also has a funny suggestion regarding Phelps. He says: "Chris, start a betting game on who Phelps will be doing advertising for when he returns to the USA. Will it be McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, cereals, vacuum cleaners, or pesticides! He will make millions and the stature of the man will be tested by how he spends those millions to help the less fortunate in the world." Well my bet would be on something healthy - maybe a famous brand of breakfast bars! Keep your emails coming in to christopher.hammer@bskyb.com ! Thanks so much for all your views and compliments so far, but don't stop now, wherever you are from!

0323 Swimming - As soon as the first swimmer dives into the pool for the morning sessions, I know I won't even get a chance to breath inbetween typing each entry! It's now the men's 200m backstroke semi-finals and the first was won by an impressive Aaron Peirsol. In the next goes America's Ryan Lochte and Britain's Gregor Tait.

0317 Swimming - Pang's disqualification also means Trickett has squeezed into the final as the eighth fastest so she's a very lucky lady indeed.

0315 Swimming - Great Britain's Fran Halsall has produced a determined swim to finish third in her semi and her time of 53.94 is good enough to reach the final. She initially finished fourth but Jiaying Pang of China was disqualified for a false start. The winner of the race was Marleen Veldhuis with Hanna-Maria Seppala finishing second.

0311 Swimming - We've just seen the first semi-final of the women's 100m freestyle and world record holder Lisbeth Trickett is in real danger of missing out having finished fourth and that would be a huge shock. The winner was Natalie Coughlin, closely followed by Yingwen Zhu and Britta Steffen.

0307 Shooting - Just an update on the women's Skeet qualification and Great Britain's Elena Little is now lying in fifth now all 19 competitiors have had their first round of shooting.

0305GOLDSwimming - The defending champion Kosuke Kitajima of Japan has continued his dominance of the 200m breastroke by storming away to another impressive triumph to take gold. He couldn't break his own world record but his time of 2:07.64 is a new Olympic record. Silver goes to Australia's Brenton Rickard while Hugues Duboscq of France sneaks the bronze.

0303 Swimming - It's the men's 200m breastroke final - who will be the first medallist of the day?

0258 Just before we head over to the Water Cube to concentrate on the swimming, Nick Moger has offered his views. On Phelps he says: "I Have to disagree with Simon that there are too many swimming events. Maybe if GB had more depth (excuse the pun) and were as strong as the US or Aussies, would Simon still feel the same?" And on his hopes for the British team he adds: "I think we can get into the double figures in Golds. Not only the cycling but the rowers seem in great form. Go Team GB!"

0255 Beach Volleyball - The Americans have indeed brushed aside Norway by two sets to nil in their Pool B match, while next up on the sand it's the Chinese pairing of Chen Xue and Xi Zhang taking on South Africa.

0252 Paul Flegler has also got involved in the great debate: "To say Phelps is the greatest Olympian ever based purely on number of gold medals won is complete nonsense. Maybe you can say greatest swimmer, but there is even debate there as you compare across eras. How do you compare Phelps with Steve Redgrave winning gold in five consecutive Olympics in a physically demanding event like rowing, or Aladar Gerevich who won the same event at six Olympic Games (and that was across an era when two games weren't held because of the war)? You can't compare, so in reality can't have a meaningful debate. It is ridiculous to compare achievements in different sports when the medal offerings and effort involved in winning medals isn't comparable." Good point, I have to agree with you there. However there are other people who say he can stand head and shoulders above the rest of the Olympians.

0245 The Michael Phelps debate is one that really interests me - I've heard so many different views from a variety of perspectives and I can honestly understand both sides of the argument. Lee Hunt says: "There is no question that swimming provides multiple opportunities to win gold medals compared to say Athletics or rowing, as there is only one way to run or row, as opposed to different ways of swimming. So in my opinion Michael Phelps would have to win eight gold for him to be compared with greats like Carl Lewis or Jesse Owens and the greatest of them all in Emil Zatopac." I think it's so hard to compare across sports but when you look at Steve Redgrave busting a gut to win a 'just' five gold over 20 years while Phelps can collect that many over a matter of days, you have to ask questions. But we can't ban the poor guy from competing in all those disciplines!

0235 Simon Keemer has got in touch to say: "For the past few Olympics I have heard 'officials' talk about how the Olympics have got too big, and that they need to reduce the number of events. I think swimming provides a classic example of this - there are so many events that are very similar. Do we really need a 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m in each of the strokes, plus all the relays? It may be that the coverage over here in the US is biased to showing the swimming where they stand a good chance of winning gold, and obviously they are obsessed with Michael Phelps. But maybe, we need less swimming events and more variety in the sports in the Olympics." You make a valid point but I'd sooner get rid of football and tennis before any swimming events. I don't like any of those sports where the competitors don't view the Olympics as their pinnacle.

0230 Shooting - We do have a Brit currently in action in the Skeet qualification round. Her name is Elena Little and by all accounts she is regarded as a genuine medal hope. So I'll certainly keep you updated with her progress this morning. She's is currently lying in joint third place mid-way through the opening round.

0225 Beach Volleyball - The American duo of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh are destroying Norway pair Nila Haakedal and Ingrid Toerlen out on the sand. They've already wrapped up the first set and going well in the second.

0215 I'm impressed with the number of emails flooding in at this stage of the morning, as was the case yesterday. In fact you all kept me so busy yesterday that I hardly touched the huge hamper of food I made to last me through the night! I have a funny feeling it will be the same this time, but I'm not complaining. Gareth Evans is enjoying a "beautiful warm sunny winters' day" in Christchurch, New Zealand. Better than our summer I think! He also says: "It's been interesting seeing the implosion of the very highly rated NZ rowing team. The media over here don't know what's happened! The Brits are on fire, it's great to see the fighting spirit shown by all the teams and individuals that have qualified for the finals! I'm very proud! All the very best to all our rowers in their quests to be the best in the world, Olympic champions! My two and half year old daughter is also cheering them on, as she did when Nicole Cooke did the business! Keep going all the team, I'm sure it's going to be a very successful Games for our team!" I have to say I watched in amazement as New Zealand's Mahe Drysdale messed up in the single sculls yesterday despite being the world record holder - but this allowed Britain's Alan Campbell to qualify for the final.

0205 Hockey - So what's going on in Beijing at the moment? With the swimming action just under an hour away, we're currently being entertained by some women's hockey as Holland lead hosts China 1-0 at half-time. Elsewhere there's group matches going on in men's handball and basketball as well as the women's beach volleyball.

0200 Simon Print has emailed in to say he's working nights but following our coverage instead of doing his job - luckily he's the manager of his workplace so he won't get into any trouble! Anyway, he asks whether we think Great Britain will beat our gold medal haul from Athens. We got nine back then and I'm pretty confident that with the help of the cyclists we can get into double figures. I'll also throw that question out to wider debate and see how many optimistic readers we have!

0150 Obviously the hot topic of these Games is whether Michael Phelps can be described as the 'greatest' Olympian of all time having he picked up his 10th and 11th gold medals yesterday. Statistically there is no doubt he's the most successful but does his sport provide an unfair amount of opportunities for gold in comparison to other sports or are his incredible achievements just something to admire. Let me know what you think by emailing christopher.hammer@bskyb.com

0136 As always I invite your feedback from wherever you are in the world. Are you staying up late - or getting up early - in Britain or are you following our coverage where the time zone is slightly easier for your body clock to bear? What are you looking forward to seeing most today and what have been your favourite moments of these Games so far? Email me at christopher.hammer@bskyb.com and I'll publish as many as possible. Yesterday I had an incredible response from you all from home and abroad so I couldn't get everyone's contribution on display but please keep trying and today could be your lucky day!

0124 Welcome to our coverage of day six of the Olympic Games in Beijing. Many of you will be relieved or stunned to hear that Michael Phelps won't be topping any podiums today and instead attention turns to what many consider to be swimming's blue ribbon event - the men's 100m freestyle, which should be a thrilling battle between Australia's and Alan Bernard of France. Yesterday both men exchanged world records in the semi-finals but who will emerge triumphant when it matters? There are three other finals in the Water Cube, but the Brits won't feature in the women's 4x200m freestyle after their qualification nightmare. Later on today Britain's badminton duo Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms continue their quest for mixed doubles gold, while in boxing, Billy Joe Saunders, Bradley Saunders and Tony Jeffries also compete for Team GB. Stay with us to stay right up to speed with all the latest action and news from Beijing.