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ESPN Podium: Superstar at sweet sixteen

Ye Shiwen celebrates victory © Getty Images

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Every day of the Olympics, we at ESPN Towers will award gold, silver and bronze medals to the top three moments. Presenting day one...

Schedule
Results
Medal Table

Gold

Ye Shiwen, the 16-year-old from China, destroyed the field on the freestyle leg of the women's 400m medley, claiming a gold medal and clocking a new world record time of 4:28.43, one second quicker than the previous best. It was, frankly, an amazing performance that she pulled out of nowhere just as it seemed America's Elizabeth Beisel was going to triumph.

Ye had swum the fastest time of the year at the heats stage of the Games - then took another three seconds off that when it came to the final. A quite phenomenal performance that will live long in the memory.

Silver

Anthony Ogogo's impressive victory over Junior Castillo of the Dominican Republic came amid a backdrop of upheaval in the middleweight's personal life. His mother is in hospital following a brain hemorrhage (she is now in a stable condition), while his sister went into labour early on Saturday.

"When it happened [his mother falling ill] I just wanted to pull out. I just didn't see how I could focus on anything other than my mum," Ogogo said. "My sisters just said to me that my mum would feel terrible if she knew I had given up after all the adversity I had come through to qualify. So competing, giving it my all and winning a medal would mean everything to her."

But Ogogo, who is not one of the favourites for a medal in a strong GB squad, kept his composure and dominated from the outset against Castillo, looking stronger as the bout went on. Ogogo's 'reward' is a date with the No. 1 seed in his division. He will not be afraid.

Italy's archers won a nail-biting final © Getty Images

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Bronze

Michele Frangilli of Italy was faced with an all-or-nothing scenario in the final of the men's archery against USA. In order to give his team the triumph, Frangilli, who had not medalled at the Olympics since a silver in Sydney 12 years ago, had to shoot a perfect ten with the very last arrow of the competition.

He did it - although it only just broke the line of the central gold ring - and celebrated like it was never in any doubt. Brilliant moment as Italy snatched a 219-218 triumph.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.