It was somewhat ironic that after three days of cancellations due to a lack of wind at Jinniu Lake, action was able to occur today on a day where the weather was muggy and ominous, with a storm always seeming likely at some point.

And in a crescendo of rain and thunder that storm did eventually break this afternoon, leading to delays in the canoe sprint, golf and tennis competitions, but not until the sailors were safely back on shore.

Before then, action had been equally exciting on the water as windsurfer Francisco Cruz Saubidet Birkner of Argentina finished second in the final medal race, with principal rival Maxim Tokarev of Russia third, to leave both sailors on a total of 19 points.

This meant Birkner won, only by virtue of his better position in the final race, to secure the first gold medal of the Games here for the country due to play host to the 2018 edition in Buenos Aires.

After taking eight days to win their first gold, an hour earlier Singapore won two within moments of each other as Cheok Khoon Bernie Chin and Samantha Yom won the respective male and female dinghy titles after doing enough in their final races to triumph overall.

Singapore managed double gold in the dinghy classes ©ISAF





But the victory, as so often here, went to China as Wu Linli won the girl's windsurfing medal race, and overall competition, as she continued a streak that saw her win four of the last five races and come second in the other.

She finished eight points clear of Mariam Sekhposyan of Russia, while Lucie Pianazza of France was third.

Europe would have been somewhat disappointed with their lack of a sailing gold medal, but after the thunderstorms they soon made amends as the continent won all but one medal across four canoe sprint finals.

Taking place in an innovative head-to-head fashion, which involved two paddlers raced in opposite direction around a S-shaped course spanning approximately 420 metres, Belarus won twice, as Kamilor Bobr won the girl's C1 event before Stanislau Daineka took boy's K1 honours.

There was also a Russian gold, courtesy of Inna Nikitina in the girl's K1 event, but the most historic moment came in the boy's C1 competition, when Serghei Tarnosvschi crossed the line in 1mn 57.688sec to win Moldova's first gold medal in any form of the Olympics since independence.

In another innovative competition that could yet have a future in a senior sense, Czech Republic claimed the cycling relay title after Nikola Noskova edged Italy's Sofia Beggin in a thrilling final leg to avenge the Italian victory in the girl's team event on Friday (August 22).

Czech Republic and Italy sportingly celebrate together following their thrilling cycling dual ©Nanjing 2014



In a competition where two male and two female athletes competed over two cross-country legs, followed by two road time trial legs, Ukraine held off Japan and Kazakhstan to win a distant bronze.

With nine more sets of medals to be won later this evening, it is a big day of athletics action, but the stand out moment across the three finals already held came courtesy of 1500 metres runner Gilbert Kwemoi Soet, who ran from the front to clock a world youth leading time of 3min 41.99sec and claim Kenya's first, but probably not last, gold medal of these Games.

Anatoly Ryapolov leapt 7.54 metres to win Russian gold in the long jump, while Natalliah Whyte dominated the 200m competition to win in 23.55 and claim Jamaica's third athletics gold.

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