Australia clinched another minor medal yesterday when the women's water polo team won a thrilling play-off for bronze in a penalty shoot-out against Hungary.

Australian sailing team director Michael Jones said that, while results had fallen short of the nation's best Olympics two golds, a silver and a bronze at the Sydney Games Qingdao was always going to be a difficult campaign because of the tricky conditions.

''This was always going to be the toughest Olympics we could do,'' Mr Jones said. ''This was a very tricky place to sail. If we'd been anywhere else, the form of the team that we carried in, well ... the potential was there.''

Australia also has a medal chance in today's BMX men's race, with world No2 Jared Graves qualifying fastest for his semi-final, which will also feature countryman Kamikazi.

The men's and women's semi-finals and finals were called off yesterday after torrential rain, which also forced the women's cross-country mountain bike race to be moved from today till tomorrow, because of unsafe course conditions.

Also today, Australia's Ken Wallace is a medal contender in the men's K1 1000m, while the women's K4 team of Chantal Meek, Lisa Oldenhof, Lyndsie Fogarty and Hannah Davis are underdogs in their final.

And a medal beckons for Commonwealth Games champion Steve Hooker in the men's pole vault.

The British media are revelling in the comparative success of their Olympic athletes over Australia as the British took the lion's share of gold medals in the sailing and cycling and have streaked past Australia on the overall medals table. A massive National Lottery cash injection has been credited as a driving force behind Britain's surge.