Russia claim team gold

The routine was stopped early after a musical miscue first time round but they got it right at the second time of asking and Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova, newly crowned Olympic duet champions, collected their second gold medals as Russia claimed both titles for the second Games in succession.

The Russian octet, which also included 2000 Sydney Olympic duet champions Olga Brusnikina and Maria Kiseleva, collected five perfect 10s from the five judges for artistic impression and two for technical merit to amass 99.501 points, comprising half Thursday's technical routine score and half of Friday's free routine marks.

Japan, featuring duet silver medallists Miya Tachibana and Miho Takeda, repeated their 2000 Olympics result, taking another silver with 98.501 points, and the United States, with duet bronze medallists Alison Bartosik and Anna Kozlova, the bronze with 97.418.