Olympics: What You Missed - Day three

Australia's Sam Griffiths struggles to stay on her horse Happy Times at water jumps during the individual eventing cross country. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A quick bite of the best of the action from day three at the London 2012 Olympics.

High excitement on horseback
A slight hiccup on the final fence probably kept Mark Todd and Campino out of first going into the showjumping rounds. He finished with .40 time penalty which means he, at 39.50, is just .20 outside leaders Ingrid Klimke and Sara Algotsson Ostholt.

New Zealand are also poised in the team event, as they sit in fourth position behind Germany, Great Britain and Sweden. Just a rail separates silver and fourth, with Germany three rails clear of New Zealand. Andrew Nicholson, so disappointed with the officials after the dressage, took his anger out on the cross-country course, finishing more than eight seconds inside the time in an outstanding ride that has pushed into ninth in the individual. The other New Zealanders haven't been quite as sharp. Jonelle Richards (31st), Jock Paget (14th) and Caroline Powell (24th) all picked up time penalties. Zara Phillips, granddaughter of a Lizzie Windsor, flew around the cross-country course without a penalty. "The crowd was unbelievable; I couldn't hear my watch beeping," she gushed. She is 10th.

Rough waters for favourite
Drama on the high seas at Weymouth too, with the UK's sure thing, Ben Ainslie in the Finn, struggling a bit. Our very own Dan Slater won the first race of the second day of Finn racing, following it up with sixth in the afternoon race. He's seventh overall, just three points off Ainslie in the bronze spot. Hamish Pepper and Jim Turner recovered from a horror first day to win the third Star race, but fell well back in the fourth race, ending 10th overall. Middling days for Andrew Murdoch (12th and 8th - 9th overall in Laser) and Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (9th and 7th - 8th overall in 49ers), and an awkward day for Sara Winther (31st and 23rd - 27th overall in Laser Radial)

Erakovic eliminated
A really tough day for the out-of-form Marina Erakovic as you're probably aware, but not such much for Venus Williams, who cruised to a 6-3 6-1 win over Italian Sara Errani. Little sis Serena won too. Fellow American Andy Roddick also won, as did Lleyton Hewitt and the women's No 1-seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. Roger Federer won through to the third round with a clinical 6-2 6-2 over someone inferior.

Hockey update
Not a great night last night for the hockey boys. You might have stayed up to see Australia thrash South Africa 6-0, but did you know Spain and Pakistan drew 1-1 and the Netherlands blew a 2-0 lead before winning 3-2? Didn't think so.

Quick bites:
Cadel Evans has pulled out of Wednesday's time trial, citing fatigue. Not a great month for the Ocker.

Misery for Britain in the deep pool, with the hyper-hyped Tom Daley and Peter Waterfield finished fourth.

The organising committee have put a further 3000 tickets on sale to the public after increasing anger regarding the banks of empty seats at supposedly "sold out" venues.

Medal watch:
Hot - China won another three golds to remain on top of the medal tally with nine golds and 17 medals in total.
Not - Great Britain are still yet to win a gold after three days.
On the rise - North Korea leapfrogged rivals South Korea to move into fourth overall thanks to two weightlifting golds today.

And finally...
Great Britain won bronze in the men's team gymnastics. Yes, GYMNASTICS! But it could have been better. They were set to be awarded the silver behind gold medal winners China before fourth placed Japan protested their result which saw them leapfrog the Brits into second - much to the displeasure of the home crowd. European giants Russia finished somewhere else. Incredible.