Best of the Day 11 August 2012 Olympic

Great Britain collected more medals on Friday, while a longstanding track record was finally broken. Here's our pick of day 14 in London
Last Updated: August 10, 2012 11:04pm

Lutalo Muhammad: a bronze medal for Walthamstow's finest
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Luke Campbell can claim a second Olympic boxing gold medal for Great Britain on Saturday after winning his bantamweight semi-final against Japan's Satoshi Shimizu 20-11.

Hull boxer Campbell, 24, has improved with every fight in the competition and he eased away from his awkward opponent to set up a bout with old foe John Joe Nevin of Ireland for the gold medal on Saturday.

Shimizu could count himself a little fortunate to reach the semi-finals at all, having been adjudged the loser in a farcical second round clash with Azerbaijan's Magomed Abdulhamidov which was subsequently overturned on appeal.

Campbell, who had started sluggishly in his opening win over Jahyn Parrinello, dispatched a straight left in the opening moments but it was immediately clear the gangly Shimizu was not going to prove a pushover.

Few other bantamweights tower over Campbell, and Shimizu used his extra reach to good effect behind a ramrod jab, making it hard for the Hull man to employ his usual counter-punching style to such winning effect.

A jolting left did hit home in the dying seconds of the opening round, giving the Hull man a solid 5-2 advantage, and Campbell was much improved in the second, finding his range to much better effect as he soared into an 11-6 lead.

And Campbell looked even more dominant in the last, landing shots from either hand with ease as Shimizu seemed to accept his fate, Campbell finishing in style with right hooks that jolted the Japanese fighter's head back.

Bounceback bronze

Great Britain's women bounced back from their semi-final heartbreak to win only their second ever Olympic hockey bronze medal with a 3-1 victory over New Zealand at the Riverbank Area.

Reading striker Alex Danson opened the scoring with a penalty corner deflection in the 45th-minute which reflected the hosts' dominance of play.

With 11 minutes remaining Leicester defender Crista Cullen flicked home a set-piece and even later Wales international Sarah Thomas diverted in another corner before Stacey Michelsen's consolation.

The result provided some compensation after missing out on gold with Wednesday's semi-final defeat to Argentina.

Bronze equalled the feat of the team from 1992 in Barcelona and was the minimum target prior to the Olympics.

Great Britain coach Danny Kerry paid tribute to his players for bouncing back from their semi-final heartbreak. "That is seven and a half years of my life so there is just a deep contentment," he said.

"I thought the girls were incredibly thorough and professional today as I asked them to play in a particular way which does not suit us much but it was the best way to play against New Zealand. They were deserving winners."

Sailing silver

Britain's Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell won silver in the men's 470 class behind Australia's Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page claiming the gold medal.

The Team GB pairing came into the re-arranged medal race with second-place assured and still eyeing top spot, which they hoped to wrestle off the Australian duo.

Patience and Bithell needed at least one boat in between them and the Australians to take gold, but, after an impressive start, they lost ground on their rivals, who finished ahead of the home favourites to claim the victory.

Bithell said: "We tried it, we got the better of them at the start and just managed to just sneak ahead. Unfortunately we sneaked ahead of the rest of the fleet as well. We had hoped they would be there as well.

"They sailed a fantastic race, we tried to attack them when we could and hats off to them. They held their nerve and are worthy champions. We're happy with second. "

Patience echoed those sentiments, as he added: "It's been three years, four years of hard work together and we're here standing on an Olympic podium. It's not gold but there's plenty of time. We're young boys and we'll be coming back and we'll mean business next time around yet again.For now, enjoy the moment. Stuart's an absolute legend and we're happy, happy boys."

Local boy makes good

Great Britain's taekwondo fighter Lutalo Muhammad made the most of his controversial selection to the team by claiming an Olympic bronze medal.

The 21-year-old, who was chosen ahead of world number one Aaron Cook, recorded a victory over Arman Yeremyan of Armenia in the under-80kgs to clinch a place on the podium.

Muhammad, raised just a few miles away in Walthamstow, produced a superb display to triumph 9-3.

He landed an early head shot inside the first 30 seconds, which was upheld on video appeal, before a big axe kick in the second round opened up an eight-point advantage.

Muhammad controlled the final two minutes to become Britain's first male Olympic taekwondo medallist.

Record smashed

The USA women's team broke a 27-year-old world record as they won Olympic gold in the 4x100m relay on Friday night.

The American quartet of Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and Carmelita Jeter clocked 40.82 seconds to smash the previous best, set by East Germany in 1985, by nearly half a second.

They also shattered the best-ever Olympic time which had stood for 32 years.