Welcome to the fifth day of our live coverage of the 2012 Olympic 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, 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!

10:25pm - Before we sign off, a bit more news from around London Town.

- other than the players already mentioned, there were wins in the women's tennis for Sharapova, Azarenka and Woznicki.
- in men's football, Mexico beat Switzerland 1-0, Korea and Gabon were scoreless as were Japan and Honduras AND Spain and Morocco. That's an average of 0.25 goals per game right there...
- the SA men's hockey team acquitted themselves very well against Great Britain, conceding a late goal in a 2-2 draw.

Hope you earn a gold medal for sleep performance tonight - join us tomorrow just before 11am.

10:18pm - women's 4x200m free relay, and a great final leg by Allison Schmitt led the US to a comfortable gold in an Olympic record of 7:42.92, ahead of the Australians. France were third. That concludes the splash dash for the evening, plenty more tomorrow morning, catch up just before 11am.

10:10pm - let's check out a few of your tweets, picked up using #SSOlympics. Keep them coming, they could go on TV (for just a few seconds), or they could make it here (forever!):

9:53pm - only a fifth in his semi for Chad le Clos in the men's 200m IM, but he does scrape through to the final in joint seventh place. Lochte, Cseh and Phelps took the top three times, so another thriller in store there tomorrow night at 9:20pm.

9:42pm - women's 200m breaststroke semis, and what a swim by Rebecca Soni of the US. She set a world record 2:20.00 (0.12 better) in the second heat, over three seconds ahead of SA's Suzaan van Biljon, who was third and then fifth overall in qualifying for tomorrow night's final at 8:40pm.

Men's 200m IM semis now, with Le Clos in the second heat.

9:25pm - a bona fide thriller in the men's 100m free final, with the US's Nathan Adrian edging out favourite James Magnussen by 1/100th of a second - 47.52 to 47.53. Brent Hayden of Canada was third. 'The missile' Magnussen seemed to have it sewn up, but a slow last stroke allowed Adrian to sneak in. It really is all about where you are in your stroke when you hit the touchpad at this level - just ask Phelps.

9:20pm - women's 200m breaststroke final, with China's Jiao Liuyang adding a gold to her Beijing silver. Her Olympic record of 2:04.06 was over a second faster than Spain's Mireia Belmonte Garcia, with Natsumi Hoshi (you can lead her to water....) of Japan in third.

One of the biggest events of the whole Games coming up - the men's 100m freestyle final.

9pm - men's 200m backstroke semis through, and Tyler Clary was quickest in 1:54.71, with fair-low A-mare-re-caan Ryan Lochte in second. What a final that will be tomorrow night at 8:45pm.

8:48pm - women's 100m freestyle semis just completed, and Ranomi Kromowidjojo (get that in a headline...) of the Netherlands was very impressive in an Olympic record of 53.05. Second fastest was Melanie Schlanger (that's better), with Missy Franklin of the States in third. Franklin also has the 4x200 free later, so go put those feet up, little Missy

8:35pm - first race of the evening, and what a cracker to start. Daniel Gyurter of Hungary moves up a medal from Athens 2004, winning gold in a new world-record time of 2:07.28, just ahead of home favourite Michael Jamieson. Japan's Ryo Tateshi secured bronze. It is also the end of the reign of Kosuke Kitajima, who had won the previous two golds in this event.

7:45pm - 45 minutes until the splash action, so a quick update from the courts of King Roger... On the men' side, Federer expressed himself to Denis Istomin to the tune of 7-5, 6-3, and there were wins for Del Potro, Tsonga (whose whole match was 25 games less than his third set yesterday), Djokovic (over Hewitt) and Andy 'tear jerker' Murray. For the women Clijsters and Serena sailed safely through, but Venus's problems continued with a two-tie-break set loss to Angelique Kerber.

Now to get you ready, here is tonight's swimming programme is:

20:30 - Men's 200m Breaststroke final
20:40 - Women's 100m Freestyle semifinals
20:51 - Men's 200m Backstroke semifinals
21:12 - Women's 200m Butterfly final
21:20 - Men's 100m Freestyle final
21:29 - Women's 200m Breaststroke semifinals (Suzaan van Biljon)
21:43 - Men's 200m Individual Medley semifinals (Chad le Clos)
22:04 - Women's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay final

6:15pm - just over two hours until tonight's swimming finals, so some news from around the current capital of the world...

- SA's Ashleigh Moolman finished 24th out of 24 in the women's cycling individual time trial, nearly five minutes behind winner Kristin Armstrong (not that name again....) of the US in 42:23
- in the men's time trial, it was more good news for Britain this Wednesday as Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins claimed gold in 50:39, with Germany's Tony Martin second some 42 seconds behind. South African-Kenyan Brit Christopher Froome continued his good form in securing bronze in 51:47.
- in men's football, Brazil put three past New Zealand with no reply, and Egypt downed Belarus 3-1.

2:30pm - update from London. SA men's beach volleyball team of Freedom Chiya and Grant Goldschmidt lost 21-19 and 21-13 to Poland in their Group D match; Great Britain won their first gold, winning the women's rowing pairs, then followed that up with bronze in the men's eights behind Germany and Canada; China beat Angola in their women's basketball clash, and Serena Williams crushed Zvonareva 1 and 0.

12:26pm - women's semis in the 4x200m free relay complete, and Australia were quickest for tonight's final in 7:49.44, just ahead of the US and Canada.

12:26pm - Chad le Clos third in heat 3 of the men's 200m IM in a time of 1:59.45. Laszlo Cseh fastest in 1:57.20.

Phelps second in heat 4, just behind Japan's Hagano who finished in 1:58.22.

Lochte wins fourth and final heat in 1:58.03. Cseh, Lochte, Hagino and Phelps were fastest through, with Le Clos back in 11th. Darian Townsend was back in 21st.

12:05pm - SA's Suzaan van Biljon is through to tonight's semis in the women's 200m breaststroke, finishing 9th in the heats in a time of 2:25.94. Rebecca Soni was top qualifier in 2:21.40. Those races will take place around 9:30pm.

11:54am - SA's Suzaan van Biljon faces an anxious wait after finishing 4th in heat 3 of the women's 200m breaststroke in 2:25.94. Japan's Satomi Suzuki won the heat in 2:23.22.

Elsewhere, SA's Naydene Smith and Lee-Ann Persse finished second in the B final of the women's rowing pairs.

11:42am - South African Darren Murray's participation in the men's 200m backstroke is over after finishing 25th in the heats in 2:00.01. Tyler Clary and Ryan Lochte of the US were the fastest qualifiers, over three and a half seconds faster than Murray.

Next up we have the women's 200m breaststroke heats with Suzaan van Biljon competing. Around half an hour until Le Clos and Townsend go off in the men's 200m IM.

11:30am - SA's Darren Murray has just finished third in heat 2 of the men's 200m backstroke, coming home in 1/100th of a second over two minutes. Few more heats before we find out if that's good enough for tonight's semis...

Everyone in the next heat though was faster than Darren, so not looking good...

11:20am - women's 100m freestyle heats are finally complete, with China's Tang Yi going through fastest in 53.28. The US's Missy Franklin of the US could only manage 10th.

10:45am - Another golden morning to you! have we been spoilt at these Games or what!! About 15 mins until the start of the morning's swimming, so here's a rundown on what there is to look forward to for SA:

11:25 - Men's 200m backstroke heats - Darren Murray
11:52 - Women's 200m breaststroke heats - Suzaan van Biljon
12:14 - Men's 200m Individual Medley heats Chad le Clos
12:14 - Men's 200m Individual Medley heats Darian Townsend

Elsewhere, the women's pairs are in their finals (but not for a medal) at 11:10am; our men's duo is in beach volleyball action at 1pm; Ashleigh Moolman takes part in the women's individual time trial in road cycling, and the men's hockey team face hosts GB at 5pm.

Tonight's swimming programme is:

20:30 - Men's 200m Breaststroke final
20:40 - Women's 100m Freestyle semifinals
20:51 - Men's 200m Backstroke semifinals
21:12 - Women's 200m Butterfly final
21:20 - Men's 100m Freestyle final
21:29 - Women's 200m Breaststroke semifinals
21:43 - Men's 200m Individual Medley semifinals
22:04 - Women's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay final

Couple of tweets from last night:

- Day 4's full coverage
- Day 3's full coverage
- Day 2's full coverage
- Day 1's full coverage