Welcome to the eighth 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 and athletics. We'll keep it light and informal, and we invite 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!

10:57pm - defending champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce retained her women's 100m title in a quick race to end off the evening. She came home in 10.75, just ahead of the US's Carmelita Jeter (10.78) and fellow Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown (10.81). Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare got off to a terrible start and couldn't recover, finishing in last place in 11.01.

10:50pm - men's long-jump results, and not good news for SA as Khotso Mokoena, who silvered in Beijing, finished in a lowly eighth. It's the high jump for you when you get home, Khotso!

Gold went to Britain's Greg Rutherford - what a track&field night for the hosts with three golds, silver to Michael Watt of Australia and Will Claye of the US leapt to bronze.

10:47pm - Farah and away his best performance... Britain's third gold of the evening as Mo Farah wins the men's 10 000m. Two-time defending champion Kenenisa Bekele was back in fourth. Galen Rupp of the US was second - a surprising African shut-out from the top two - with Kenenisa's brother Tariku picking up bronze. Muchiri of Kenya was fifth.

10:0pm - Britain's poster girl for London 2012, Jessica Ennis, has claimed an emphatic victory in the women's heptathlon. Her points total of 6 955 was over 300 ahead of her nearest competitor, which at this moment is unclear as it looks as if Germany's Lilli Schwarzkopf, who was set for silver, has been DQd from the 800m. Will let you know when I hear more.

Tweets - a few more of your thoughts, delivered to us courtesy of #SSOlympics. Keep sending them through...

9:55pm - news from the field is that SA's Khotso Mokoena scraped through into the last eight of the men's long jump with a best of 7.93m in his first three jumps. He gets three more to try and match or better his silver from Beijing.

9:41pm - a very fitting end for Michael Phelps, as the greatest swimmer and Olympian the world has ever seen signed off with a gold in the 4x100m medley. His butterfly leg gave the US the lead, and there was no way 100m champion Nathan Adrian would give it up from there. Japan were second, Australia third.

Phelps's 18 golds means he now has exactly double the number of golds the athletes tied for second have, with Carl Lewis being one of those. He has 22 in all, and that's not gonna be beaten any century soon. A glorious Olympic farewell to the great man - thanks for the memories (although the Le Clos one is our favourite down here...).

9:25pm - Botswana's great hope of an athletics medal - Amantle Montsho in the women's 400m - went comfortably through to Sunday's final after winning her semi in 50.15. Joining her are the likes of Antonina Krivoshapka, DeeDee Trotter and Sanya Richards-Ross. Tomorrow night, 10:10pm.

9pm - this is getting tiring... back to the pool. Might jump in quick to cool off.

Great win for Sun Yang, who claimed his second gold and fourth medal of the Games, in the men's 1 500m, winning in a world-record time of 14:31.02. Canada's Ryan Cochrane was second over eight seconds back, and Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia claimed bronze, and another medal for Africa. I guess you should be a good swimmer when you come from Tuna is here...

8:55pm - 100m semis for the women on the track, and a Blessing who was not in disguise - Nigeria's Okagbare - went through to the final later tonight in 10.92. Carmelita Jeter of the US was quickest in 10.83, while Jamaican speedsters Veronica Campbell-Brown and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce are also safely through. Ivory Coast's Murielle Ahoure qualified eighth, but it's a final! Tonight at 22:55, don't miss it...

8:32pm - the women's splash dash, and favourite Ranomi Kromowidjojo won well in 24.05 to complete the 50/100 double. Herasimenia of Belarus was second, and Veldhuis also of the Netherlands - who is a mother, no less - took home bronze. Bet that medal will disappear under the couch in no time....

Mne's 1 500m, so a dash back to the Olympic Stadium. Out of my way, Usain, coming through...

8:18pm - men's semifinals of the men's 400m hurdles, and the final eight for Monday's final are through. A real blast from the past as 2004 champion Felix Sanchez set the fastest time, with Americans Angelo Taylor and Kerron Clement also safely through. Home favourite David Greene, the world champion, thought he had blown his chances after finishing fourth in the first heat of three, but his time was one of the two fastest losers, so he scraped through.

Right, gonna run over to the Aquatics Centre quickly, be with you in a minute....

7:50pm - good evening, and just about time to join the start of the athletics and swimming for the night (schedules just below), so let's catch up a little on what we haven't done already:

- badminton: women's gold for Xuerui Li; doubles also to China
- basketball: Lithuania gave the US a good run, 94-99, while Brazil crushed China 98-59
- football: Japan continue to impress, going through to the semis with a 3-0 win over Egypt; Mexico ended African interest with a 4-2 win over Senegal
- hockey women: Japan 1 Belgium 1; China 2 Great Britain 1
- rowing: Great Britain won gold in the men's four, ahead of Australia and the US
- tennis: an Olympic-sized crushing for Sharapova, losing 0-6, 1-6 to Serena Williams.

2:40pm - a few more results from london before we knock off for a while ahead of tonight's programmes:

- in the men's basketball, it was France 73 Tunisia 69, and Russia 77 Spain 74
- in women's hockey, Australia edged SA 1-0, with the Netherlands scraping past Korea 3-2

And here's how the Olympic swimming programme is completed tonight:

20:30 - Women's 50m Freestyle final
20:36 - Men's 1500m Freestyle final
21:07 - Women's 4x100m Medley Relay final
21:27 - Men's 4x100m Medley Relay final

2:20pm - all the heats for the men's 100m are over, and no shocks as the favourites all cruise through to tomorrow's semifinals. Here's the rundown on tonight's athletics:

20:00 - Men’s 400m Hurdles semifinals
20:30 - Women’s Discus finals
20:35 - Women’s 100m semifinals
20:55 - Men's Long Jump final
21:05 - Women’s 400m semifinals
22:15 - Men’s 10 000m final
22:55 - Women’s 100m final

Tweets - it certainly looks like the 100m heats have got you guys ready for some serious action...

Keep them coming, and don't forget to include #SSOlympics in your tweet so we can pick them up.

1:32pm - right, the megathletes are under way, with Tyson Gay cruising through the first heat. Will confirm the heat winners as we go:

- Heat 1 - Gay, 10.08
- Heat 2 - Gatlin, 9.97
- Heat 3 - Bailey, 9.88
- Heat 4 - Bolt, 10.09
- Heat 5 - Powell, 10.04
- Heat 6 - Blake, 10.00
- Heat 7 - Chambers, 10.02

1:30pm - Yelena Isinbayeva comes into the women's pole-vault qualifying, and goes over 4.50m like it wasn't there. Someone else could have gone over as well underneath her... 4.60m is automatic qualification, but that should already see her through.

Watch - here's the video clip of Oscar's performance this morning.

1:20pm - heats for the women's 3 000m steeplechase complete (no one caught the steeple), and there were three Ethiopians in the top four - Hiwot Ayalew, Etenesh Diro and Sofia Assefa in spots 1, 3 and 4. Germany's Gesa Krause was second. Kenyans Njoroge and Cheywa qualified in 6th and 8th.

12:45pm - a result from earlier today. Tunisia lost a tight men's basketball game to France, with the north Africans going down 69-73.

12:35pm - all the men's 400m heats are complete, with Jonathan Borlee of Belgium was fastest in 44.43. Pistorius was 16th fastest in a SB of 45.44, but time was not important as it was the top three in each heat went immediately through. The only other African qualifying was Sudan's Rabah Yousif in 17th.

11:55am - some news on the men's first-round heats of the men's 100m. They have split the big names up, so here's the main protagonists in the heats starting at 1:30pm (CAT, SA, GMT+2)

Heat 1 - Tyson Gay
Heat 2 - Justin Gatlin
Heat 4 - Usain Bolt
Heat 5 - Asafa Powell
Heat 6 - Yohan Blake

11:40am - Oscar is through! The fastest man on no legs finished second in his heat in a season's best 45.44, and is though to tomorrow's semifinals.

11:10am - first news from the morning, and it's not good for SA. They put up a better performance, but SA's hockey women went down 1-0 to Australia for their fourth defeat in a row.

11am - Good morning, and welcome to Oscar day as SA's Paralympic hero makes his debut on the Olympic stage. It's also the day Usain Bolt lights up the Games and the finish too of a superb swimming programme. Here's a few highlights:

On the swimming front, here's the evening programme as no heats today:

20:30 - Women's 50m Freestyle final
20:36 - Men's 1500m Freestyle final
21:07 - Women's 4x100m Medley Relay final
21:27 - Men's 4x100m Medley Relay final

On the athletics track, here are a few highlights:

11:35 – Men’s 400m heats (Oscar Pistorius)
13:30 – Men’s 100m heats (Bolt, Blake, Gay etc)
20:35 – Women’s 100m semifinals (plenty of African interest)
22:15 – Men’s 10 000m final (Bekele v the rest of Africa!)
22:55 – Women’s 100m final (Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare)

And a few other select events on the second Saturday of London 2012:

Badminton
15:15 - Women's Singles final

Basketball – Men
10:00 – Tunisia v France
15:30 – Lithuania v USA
23:15 – Nigeria v Argentina

Football – Men quarterfinals
13:00 – Japan v Egypt
15:30 – Mexico v Senegal

Hockey – Women
09:30 – Australia v South Africa

Rowing
12:30 – Men’s Four final A

Tennis - Women's final

15:00 - Serena Williams v Maria Sharapova

So if you don't have a TV or live streaming to hand - hey, even if you do - keep it right here and send through those Twitter comments with #SSOlympics included.

CLICK HERE for today's full schedule

- Day 7's full coverage
- Day 6's full coverage
- Day 5's full coverage
- Day 4's full coverage
- Day 3's full coverage
- Day 2's full coverage
- Day 1's full coverage