Olympics: Britain's Eventing Team Win Silver

Zara Phillips has won a silver medal in her debut Olympics after the British eventing team held on to second place in a tense final phase.

Phillips and her colleagues Tina Cook, Nicola Wilson, William Fox-Pitt and Mary King came second to favourites Germany after the show-jumping.

The royal had set nerves rattling by knocking down a pole and racking up three time penalties with her round but King and Cook both jumped clear to secure the silver, leaving New Zealand with bronze.

It is Britain's 18th Olympic post-war eventing medal and means Phillips has gone one better than her mother, who competed in the Montreal Games in 1976 but did not take home a medal.

Princess Anne, who presented the medals, was watching from the stands with a large royal contingent as the result went down to the wire.

Among the spectators were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry, the Duchess of Cornwall and Phillips' husband, the former England rugby player Mike Tindall.

Their silver takes Britain's medal tally to four after a silver in the women's cycling road race and bronze in both the men's team gymnastics and the women's 400m freestyle swimming.

Cook and King, who at 51 is the oldest female member of Team GB, narrowly missed out on medals in the individual competition hours later after they both had eight penalties in the extra round.

Germany's Michael Jung and Sandra Auffarth took the individual gold and bronze respectively, and Sweden's Sara Algotsson-Ostholt claimed silver.

Phillips said the last three days had been an "emotional rollercoaster" but hailed the thousands who had turned out to support the British team.

"It's incredible, a massive lift when you come into the arena... I'm really grateful to everyone who has come and cheered for us. All week it has been the same," she said.

Holding the equestrian events in Greenwich near to the rest of the action, instead of in a location away from the capital, has been seen as a major success.

In the Aquatics Centre, American swimming superstar Michael Phelps won a record 19th Olympic medal when he joined forces with his US team-mates to win the 4x200 metres freestyle relay.

Following his shock defeat in the 200 metres butterfly final an hour earlier, Phelps surpassed Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina as the most decorated Olympian of all time.

The win provided him with his 15th career gold medal to go with his two silver and two bronze medals.

Also in the pool, Team GB's Caitlin McClatchey finished seventh in the final of the women's 200 metres freestyle.

Her team-mate Hannah Miley was also seventh in the 200 metres individual medley, which was won by Chinese teenager Ye Shiwen in her second gold of the Games after victory in the 400 metres individual medley.

That earlier win led to American coach John Leonard branding her performance "suspicious", "disturbing" and "unbelievable", and made comparisons with previous doping cases.

Meanwhile, Britain's Michael Jamieson proved he is a real contender for Wednesday's 100 metres breaststroke final after posting the fastest time in the semi-finals. His Bath ITC team-mate Andrew Willis was third quickest.

British tennis player Andy Murray raced into the third round of the men's singles at the Olympics with a dominant 6-2 6-4 victory over Finland's Jarkko Nieminen under the roof on Centre Court.

Team GB's women's football team defeated Brazil 1-0 and will now face Canada in the quarter-finals at Coventry on Friday. In the hockey, Britain's women's team registered their second win of the tournament, beating South Korea 5-3.

With big hopes in many events yet to come including sailing, rowing and cycling, the British Olympic Association (BOA) insists Britain is still on course for a gold rush despite the mixed start.

BOA chef de mission Andy Hunt said: "There's no sense at all amongst the team that we are not delivering. The team remains confident and positive. We are about where we expected to be at this stage in the competition.

"It's really as we come in towards the end of the first week that we start to see our opportunities really ramp up in those traditional sports where we tend to excel."