Russia took the honours on the penultimate day of the Beijing Olympics as China inched closer to 100 medals and Belgium and the Dominican Republic won their first gold medals of the Games.
The Russians picked up 13 medals - four gold, three silver and six bronze - on Day 15 to move into third place on the overall medal tally with 21 gold, 21 silver and 27 bronze, ahead of Great Britain (19, 13, 15) which had a relatively quiet day with one gold and two bronze medals.
The host nation still leads the way with 49 gold, 19 silver and 28 bronze (96 in total), with the USA (34, 37, 36) holding down second spot after another three gold medals on Saturday, including one to its all-conquering women's basketball team which downed the Opals in the final.
Despite winning two gold medals on Saturday - to kayaker Ken Wallace and diver Matthew Mitcham - Australia (14, 15, 17) remains in sixth spot, unable to catch Germany (16, 10, 15) in fifth after it won the men's hockey with victory over Spain.
Kenenisa Bekele became the first man to complete the Olympic 5000 and 10,000 metres double for 28 years. Bekele blew away the field to comfortably win the 5000m in Olympic record time of 12 minutes 7.82 seconds.
Blanka Vlasic's 34-competition unbeaten run came to an end as Belgium's Tia Hellebaut stole gold in the women's high jump.
Andreas Thorkildsen defended his javelin title in brilliant style with an Olympic record throw of 90.57 metres.
Wilfred Bungei led from the front to take gold in the men's 800m final.
Nancy Langat caused an upset in the women's 1500m as she took on pre-race favourite Maryam Jamal down the back straight and went on to easily win gold.
Sanya Richards' inspirational last leg saw the United States defend its women's 4x400m relay crown from Russia in a thrilling finish.
The United States was just outside the world record in the men's 4x400m relay as it took gold in an Olympic record time of 2:55.39.
Argentina gained revenge over Nigeria for its 1996 defeat with a narrow 1-0 victory in the Olympic soccer final in the blazing heat of the Bird's Nest stadium.
Lionel Messi, the 21-year-old Barcelona player whose participation in the tournament was threatened after his club won a legal battle with FIFA, proved the pivotal influence laying on a goal for Angel di Maria and regularly tormenting the Nigerian defence.
Everton's Victor Anichebe came closest to an equaliser for Nigeria but was twice denied by some brilliant goalkeeping.
Thailand's Somjit Jongjohor won the gold medal in flyweight boxing with an 8-2 win over Cuba's Andris Laffita Hernandez 8-2 and Felix Diaz of the Dominican Republic won the light-welterweight title with a comfortable 12-4 win over Thailand's Manus Boonjumnong.
The Ukraine's Vasyl Lomachenko took the gold in the featherweight class after the referee stopped the fight with him leading France's Khedafi Djelkhir 9-1 after the opening round.
Great Britain's James DeGale took middleweight gold with a 16-14 win over Cuba's Emilio Correa Bayeaux.
Germany's Sabine Spitz opened up a winning on the first lap on held on to her advantage to take gold in the women's cross country mountain bike.
The 2003 world champion and Athens bronze medallist stopped just short of the finishing line and carried her bike over her head through the tape to