Welcome to the fourth day of our live coverage of the 2012Olympic Games, where we'll keep you right up to date with all the major happenings throughout the day, with the main focus around the swimming. We'll keep it light and informal, and weinvite your tweets and Facebook comments throughout the day, so keep them coming. A couple of points:

- don't forget you can watch the Games live on the website if you are a DStv subscriber in sub-Saharan Africa. Click on the LIVE TODAY tab above the spotlights on the home page

- to send us comments, and we'll add the best on this page too as well as create a daily 'best of', use the Facebook comments at the base of this page, or be sure to include #SSOlympics in your tweets

So follow all the action below, and we look forward to your company over the next two weeks and a bit. Enjoy!

10:05pm - Michael Phelps becomes the most decorated Olympian of all time with gold in the 4x200m free relay - his 19th Olympic medal! Now that's history....

I guess that's decent consolation for Phelps, and only fitting that it was gold - his 15th of that hue for swimming's greatest athlete. The US broke the 7min mark with a time of 6:59.70, with France second in 7:02.77 and China third another three and a half seconds back. SA - with Le Clos, like Phelps, swimming his second final of the night - were drown, sorry down, in seventh.

That's the swimming for tonight, but plenty more to come tomorrow. See you then...

9:52pm - Yay, she won (again)! Ye Shiwen, just 16 years old, is the women's 200m IM gold medallist in an Olympic record of 2:07.57, and the Chinese swimmer is having a remarkable Games. Alicia Coutts of Australia second, with the US's Caitlin Leverenz third. Zimbabwe's Kirst Coventry finished sixth.

Men's 4x200m free relay time, SA in lane 1.

9:37pm - Medal collection time for Le Clos, and he receives it from Gideon Sam no less... No holding back the tears, flowing freely as his thrilled parents look on. What a moment - and Phelps had to remind him to hold up his medal foe the photos. Nice touch.

9:31pm - men's 200m breaststroke semis completed, and something to shout about for the home crowd. Michael Jamieson was first in 2:08.20 and Andrew Willis third, with Hungary's Daniel Gyurta splitting the two Brits.

9:10pm - feels completely insignificant, but just to let you know that Kathleen Hersey was the fastest qualifier from the women's 200m butterfly semis. Jiao Liuyang second and Natsumi something something third . . . pass the champers!! No not the JC Le Roux, crack the good stuff!

8:56pm - LE CLOS WINS!!!!!!.

What a result! Phelps led practically the whole way, but tiring towards the end, he tried to glide home and Le Clos's quick stroke edged him 5/100s of a second ahead. Unbelievable!! A second gold for SA in the pool, and only the second male individual swimming gold ever behind Van der Burgh. Phelps takes his Olympic tally to 18 medals, equalling the all-time record, but that will be scant consolation to the great man. But hey, not too much sympathy from these shores!

Now we can say it to Mr Phelps: Le Clos but no cigar....

8:50pm - Right - big swig of coffee, rub the eyes, and get on the edge of the seat. It's Chad le Clos time!

8:46pm - Great race in the women's 200m free, with the US's Allison Schmitt going away early and destroying the quality field in an Olympic record of 1:53.61. France's Camille Muffat was second in 1:55.58, Aus's Bronte Barratt third and US upstart Missy Franklin was just outside the medals. Pellegrini, who won gold in 2004 and 2008, finished her reign in fifth.

8:33pm - Gideon Louw in the first heat of the men's 100m free, and after a bad start he couldn't recover and finished fourth behind Magnusson 47.63 and Cielo 48.17 in a time of 48.44. Second heat coming up, hold thumbs..

Second heat done, and was won by Adrian of the US in 47.97. Bad news for SA though - Louw was .06 short of 8th place, so no final for SA in the blue-riband event.

8pm - Just half an hour until the swimming starts, so let's put you in the picture. The programme for the evening looks like this, so put the kids to bed, put the slippers on, get a hot cuppa and make sure those feet are at least 50cm off the ground:

20:30 - Men's 100m Freestyle semifinals (Gideon Louw)
20:41 - Women's 200m Freestyle final
20:49 - Men's 200m Butterfly final (Chad le Clos)
20:57 - Women's 200m Butterfly semifinals
21:20 - Men's 200m Breaststroke semifinals
21:43 - Women's 200m Individual Medley final (Kirsty Coventry)
21:51 - Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay final (SA)

Some more results from this afternoon: Banyana fought to a gallant 0-0 draw with Japan while Canada held Sweden to 2-2 in the women's football; Nigeria lost 72-53 to Lithuania in men's basketball (Tunisia face the might of the US of A at 11:15pm), and on the grass of Wimbledon there were wins for Baghdatis (over Gasquet), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (25-23 in the third set against Raonic), Hewitt, Murray, Djokovic (over Roddick), as well as Venus and Sharapova on the women's side.

Right, have the throat lozengers ready - we've got some supporting to do tonight...

4pm - update from the Games. Four in a row for SA - yes, our lightweight four managed to go through to the rowing final, coming second in their semi behind Denmark this afternoon. Watch them tomorrow at 1:10pm as James Thompson, Matthew Brittain, John Smith and Sizwe Ndlovu go for glory.

Banyana are acquitting themselves well against world champions Japan, it's 0-0 with about ten minutes to go until halftime. Hope I haven't just cursed them....

1:50pm - couple of tweets from earlier, keep them coming. We're looking out for SSOlympics, so send us your thoughts and emotions...

1:20pm - much better second-half performance, but not enough as the SA women's hockey team went down 4-1 to New Zealand in their group match.

12:33pm - Update from the women's hockey, and SA are 3-0 down at halftime against New Zealand. Hotly disputed third goal - scored from right on the line of the D - but it stood and it's going to be a tough second period.

12:22pm - More interest for SA in the pool tonight, with the men's 4x200m freestyle relay team qualifying 7th fastest for the final. The US were dominant in 7:06.75, with France and Germany over two and a half seconds behind. Australia, Great Britain, China, SA and Hungary make up the field for the last event tonight, at 9:50pm.

That completes the heats for the morning's programme.

12:20pm - Don't forget you can watch everything here on the website, as long as you are a DStv subscriber in sub-Saharan Africa. Just click on the red Live Video tab at the top of the page.

12:10pm - first semifinal of the men's 4x200m free relay, and SA have finished third behind France and Germany in a time of 7:11.51. The first two, after 800m of swimming, were separated by 5/100s of a second. Shouldn't have cut those nails this morning....

12pm - SA have just hit the pool in the men's 4x200m free relay, so quick update from men's 200m breaststroke heats. Fastest through was Daniel Gyurta of Hungary in 2:09.71, with Brits Michael Jamieson and Andrew Willis two and three.

11:40am - Women's 200m butterfly heats over, and the US's Hersey went through fastest in 2:06.41. Liuyang of China was second, and Lowe of Great (though not so far at these Games...) Britain in third. On to the men's 200m breaststroke heats, and no, Cameron is not swimming this event!.

11:20am - Men's 100m freestyle heats complete, and good news for SA as Gideon Louw qualified second fastest for tonight's semis in 48.29. Fellow countryman Graeme Moore faded badly to miss out in 49.29. Adrian of the US was quickest in 48.19, while brash Aussie Magnussen went through in fourth.

11am - Top Olympic morning to you. Having some serious laptop issues this morning, so gonna have to keep this brief as the swimming heats have already started.

From an SA angle, we have Gideon Louw, Graeme Moore and the men's 4x200m freestyle team in the pool this morning, with the biggie confirmed for tonight of course - Chad le Clos in the final of the men's 200m butterfly just after 8:45pm. The hockey girls will be looking to restore some pride when they face New Zealand (11:45am); Banyana take on world champions Japan at 3:30pm; the men's lightweight fours row off in their semi at 1:50pm, and the men's badminton doubles team starts just before 10pm.

Extending the reach a little, and the Nigerian men's basketball team faces Lithuania at 3:30pm, Tunisia are on a hiding to nothing against the US, Cameroon has some boxers and a rower in action, while Zimbabwe have a couple of rowers and Olympic star Kirsty Coventry in the final of the women's 200m IM.

Elsewhere, with the Olympics being able to drag you into many of its fascinating rooms, there's the men's foil and skeet (clay pigeon shooting) finals at 8:10pm and 3pm respectively, while the beautiful women's team artistic gymnastics final starts at 5:30pm.

The full swimming schedule for tonight is:
20:30 - Men's 100m Freestyle semifinals (Gideon Louw)
20:41 - Women's 200m Freestyle final
20:49 - Men's 200m Butterfly final (Chad le Clos)
20:57 - Women's 200m Butterfly semifinals
21:20 - Men's 200m Breaststroke semifinals
21:43 - Women's 200m Individual Medley final (Kirsty Coventry)
21:51 - Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay final (SA)

And don't forget to keep us and everyone amused with your tweets (#SSOlympics), and we'll add the best onto this page. Drop some comments using the Facebook facility below, and we'll also pull the best up.

- Day 3's full coverage
- Day 2's full coverage
- Day 1's full coverage