BRITS WIPE FLOOR WITH AUSSIES!

BRITAIN could leave the Beijing Olympics with an amazing 20 golds - and look certain to wipe the floor with the Aussies in the medal table.

Christine Ohuruogu's last-gasp victory in the 400m secured Britain's 16th gold of the Games so far and Team GB are now five ahead of Australia.

Ohuruogu's success today - added to two cycling golds by Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton and one by sailor Paul Goodison - saw Britain reinforce their third place in the table behind leaders China and the USA.

GOLD: Our tally could reach 20

Australian Olympic chief Joan Coates had already got Brits' backs up when he dismissed the performance of Team GB's swimmers as "not bad for a nation with no pools and not much soap."

But he will almost certainly have to concede defeat as Britain surged ahead on the medals table today.

British Olympic Association chef de mission Simon Clegg said: "There have continued to be some absolutely brilliant performances by Team GB athletes across many different sports.

"It has been another outstanding day and a great gold medal on the track by Christine who ran a fantastic race."

Asked whether Britain could reach the 20-gold mark, Clegg added: "Let's just say we have a number of people still to compete who are quite capable of winning gold and we continue to go from strength to strength."

Phillips Idowu is favourite to win the men's triple jump on Thursday and Shanaze Read the women's BMX cycling, while Tim Brabants is a front-runner in flatwater kayaking.

There are also possible gold medal chances for Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson in sailing's Star class and Nick Dempsey in the RS:X windsurfer category. There are outside gold medal chances for heavyweight boxer David Price, the 4x400m women's relay and open water swimmers David Davies and Cassie Patten.

Australia have only five good gold medal chances remaining - the men's hockey team, the women's basketball team, Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby in sailing's Tornado class, diver Melissa Wu in the women's 10m platform, and Steve Hooker in the men's pole vault.

Clegg warned that Russia are still likely to challenge for third place - a number of team sports including handball, volleyball, basketball and water polo have still to be concluded in both men's and women's events where Britain are not represented.

Even so, fourth place would still be a remarkable achievement given that was the so-called 'ambitious' target set by British Olympic chiefs for 2012.