Lithuanian teenager Ruta Meilutyte was a surprise star of day 4 in London Olympics by becoming Olympic champion at the age of 15.
Meilutyte, who moved to Britain three years ago to train under English coach Jon Rudd, won Lithuania's first ever Olympic gold in swimming by beating American Rebecca Soni in the women's 100m breaststroke on Monday.
She made her intentions clear throughout the rounds, setting a new European record in the heats, and was fastest into the final.
Meilutyte led from start to finish and held off a fast-finishing Rebecca Soni, the Beijing silver medalist, to win in 1:05.55.
While the youngster's achievement was the highlight of the night for the crowd, who were clearly moved by what she had done, it was a thrilling night at the Aquatics Center.
Yannick Agnel won his second, and France's third, gold in 24 hours when he led from start to finish to take the 200m Freestyle title in 1:43.14, the fastest ever in a textile suit.
Beijing silver medalist Park Tae Hwan and 400m Freestyle champion Sun Yang shared second, with world champion Ryan Lochte locked out in fourth.
Teenager Missy Franklin won her first individual medal when she took the 100m Backstroke title in 58.33, with her fellow American Matt Grevers setting a new Olympic record of 52.16 in the men's equivalent.
China's World number one Lee Chong Wei survived a huge scare before booking his place in the last 16 of the men's Singles Badminton.
The top seed was taken to three games by Finn Ville Lang in a late-night thriller at Wembley Arena, but produced a strong finish to prevail 21-8 14-21 21-11.
Danish veteran Peter Gade, playing his fourth and last Olympics at the age of 35, started his latest bid for gold with an easy win over Portugal's Pedro Martins.
The day's highest-profile casualty was Japan's eighth seed Kenichi Tago, who crashed out after a shock loss to Sri Lanka's Niluka Karunaratne.
The big guns in the women's Singles had no such trouble.
China continued its dominance on the fourth consecutive day with 9 gold medals, 5 silver, and 3 bronze. The United States is in the second place (5-7-5), followed by France (3-1-3).
by RTT Staff Writer
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