Rebecca Adlington won the Olympic 400 metres freestyle on this day in 2008 to become Britain’s first female swimming gold medallist for 48 years.

The 19-year-old from Mansfield became the first woman to top the podium since Anita Lonsbrough in 1960 with her exquisite performance in the pool.

Adlington snatched gold ahead of American Katie Hoff in a thrilling finger-tip finish in Beijing, winning by 0.07 seconds in a time of four minutes 3.22secs.

Team-mate Joanne Jackson took bronze, with the pair becoming the first British women to win an Olympic medal since Sarah Hardcastle in Los Angeles in 1984.

“We are both so happy to have two British girls on the podium,” Adlington said after the pair’s heroics. “I don’t think either of us expected it and especially a gold and a bronze, it’s absolutely amazing.

“I can’t actually believe it. It hasn’t sunk in yet. I’m just over the moon. I have just watched it back on TV and I said ‘I didn’t win that.’ Then they showed the underwater shot and my hand just got there.

“I can’t believe that I have won an Olympic medal and to have Jo there as well was absolutely fantastic. I was just so happy to be on the podium with my best friend, I love Jo to bits.

“She’s so close to me it was so great to be up there with her and to have all the team looking down on you, hearing them singing the national anthem, and not in tune at all!”

Adlington would end up leaving China with another gold medal, smashing the oldest world record in swimming in the process.

The teenager completed the distance double in Beijing’s Water Cube with an inspired swim in the 800m freestyle to leave the opposition trailing behind her by more than six seconds.

Adlington claimed the gold by breaking Janet Evans’ long-standing world record for the event – a mark of eight minutes 16.22 seconds set at the Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo in 1989 and widely regarded as among the greatest records ever set in swimming.

Adlington, though, demolished it, touching in 8:14.10, 2.12 seconds faster than Evans’ time and well clear of second-placed Alessia Filippa of Italy and Denmark’s bronze medallist Lotte Friss.

After the first two heats in the Men's two-man Bobsled at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre on Monday, the Jamaican team of Nimroy Turgott and Shanwayne Stephens found themselves in 30th place.

The pair clocked a time of 1:01.23 in their first heat then returned to clock 1:01.35 in the second for a combined time of 2:02.58, which left them last.

On Tuesday, Stephens and Turgott returned for heat 3 and needed to finish in the top 20 to advance to the medal round.

However, after the third heat, they failed to improve their position in the standings, thus ending the quest for a medal. Their final time after three heats was 3:04.12.

The Trinidadian team of Axel Brown and Andre Marcano sat 27th after the two heats with a time of 2:01.70. They eventually fell back a place on Tuesday after heat three, finishing with a time of 3:02.56.

The German team of Francesco Friedreich and Thorsten Margis was the fastest after the first two heats, with a time of 1:58.38, and eventually secured gold in the event with a time of 3:56.89.

Germany secured a historic treble with Johannes Lochner and Florian Bauer finishing second in 3:57.38 and Christoph Hafer and Mathias Sommer finishing third in 3:58.58.

Elsewhere on Monday, Jamaican Alpine Skier Benjamin Alexander finished 46th overall in the Men’s Giant Slalom with a time of 3:18.52.

Haiti’s Richardson Viano also competed in the Men’s Giant Slalom but failed to finish.

The gold medal in the event was won by Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt in 2:09.35 while silver was taken by Slovenia’s Zan Kranjek in 2:09.54 and bronze by Mathieu Faivre of France in 2:10.69.