Olympic joy for Team GB as paddler scoops a silver in slalom canoeing and three-day eventers take two bronzes

And Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson reached the babminton mixed doubles quarter finals with a dramatic win over the second seeds from China.

Florence's faultless run in the slalom canoeing final at the Shunyi white water park lifted Britain up to sixth in the Olympic medal tables.

Florence, a relative newcomer in his sport, is the first Briton to win an Olympic medal in the white water event since Gareth Marriott also won silver at Barcelona in 1992.

Triumphant: Great Britain's David Florence claims silver in the slalom canoeing

The athlete, from Aberdeen, came into the final in fourth place but produced a flawless run to propel him above Poland's Krzystof Bieryt and Czech paddler Stanislav Jezek.

Mark Ratcliffe, head coach of the development programme at the National Watersports Centre in Nottingham, where David trains, said a whole group had watched his victory at the centre.

He said: 'We're all really really pleased. There's a big group of us, athletes and staff gathered in the watersports centre watching on the big screen so it's been really exciting.

'I think David would have been quite confident going in. He has had a couple of good years, he's always been in the mix.

'In the two days he's showed he had the pace to be in with a medal and I think he got what he deserved.'

He was in first place until Slovakian world number one Michal Martikan claimed gold with the last run of the final.

Britain's three-day event team also added a bronze to the medal collection by finishing third after the final show-jumping stage. And their joy was doubled after Kristina Cook took another bronze in the individual competition.

Clear round: Tina Cook on Miners Frolic clears a fence during the team eventing showjumping phase at the Olympic Equestrian Centre

The team, which would have featured Zara Phillips had her horse not succumbed to an injury earlier this year, came in behind Australia and Germany.

The quintet of Cook, Daisy Dick, William Fox-Pitt, Sharon Hunt and
Mary King did enough to hang on to that place but only Cook pulled off a clear round.

Earlier on a dramatic day for Britain, 2004 Olympic silver medallist Campbell Walsh crashed out of the kayaking competition when he finished last in the semi-final.

Hopes of repeating Britain's dazzling success in the pool yesterday faded this morning, however, after the men and women swimmers got off to a disappointing start.

Emms and Robertson, the 2006 babminton mixed double world champions, took the first game 21-16 before Gao Ling and Zheng Bo hit back to win the second 21-16.

Triumph: Nathan Robertson (R) punches the air in victory after he and Gail Emms (centre) defeated China's Gao Ling and Zheng Bo

The British duo found themselves 12-17 down in the decider only to show great powers of recovery to triumph 21-19 - despite facing a hostile Chinese crowd.

Gemma Spofforth narrowly missed out on a medal in the women's 100m backstroke, finishing a 'painful' fourth just 0.04 seconds behind American Margaret Hoelzer.

The 20-year-old said: 'I'm sure I will calm down and realise I finished fourth in an Olympic final, but at the moment it's just so painful to look up at that scoreboard and be so close to gold.

'It went much better than yesterday. I knew I had to go out much faster and one place I needed to improve was my turn and I think I did that.'

Joanne Jackson's dreams of clinching a second Olympic medal were dashed when she failed to qualify for the 200m freestyle final.

The 21-year-old claimed a bronze in the 400 metres freestyle yesterday behind team mate and new Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington, who took gold from American favourite Katie Hoff by just seventh hundredths of a second.

Michael Phelps won his third gold medal in three days and broke his second individual world record of the Games when he obliterated the field in the final of the 200m freestyle.

His time of 1 min 42.96 secs was almost a full second under the mark he set at the world championships in Melbourne in March last year and the American was so dominant he had clear water between himself and second placed Park Tae-hwan of South Korea.

Britain's women's hockey team managed to keep their Olympic hopes alive after fighting back from 2-0 down to finish in a 2-2 draw with Argentina.