Great Britain has to survive a day without any Olympic medals

Nick Skelton, riding Big Star, narrowly missed out on adding to Team GB’s equestrian medal haul with a late mistake (Getty Images)

The London Philharmonic Orchestra's rendition of "God Save the Queen", which has become so familiar during Britain's gold medal glut, went unheard for the first time in eight days yesterday as the country's athletes struggled to live up to the incredibly high bar set so far.

The great British hope was showjumper Nick Skelton, who had already scooped Britain's first team gold in 60 years with Scott Brash, Ben Maher and Peter Charles on Monday. But his final round was a near-repeat of Athens eight years ago: he survived an early scare only to put down the third-to-last fence and incur four penalty points to knock him out of contention. Gold went to Switzerland's Steve Guerdat.

Speaking after the event, Skelton seemed to place the blame for his poor round on his ride, Big Star, but said both could be back competing at the Games in Rio in 2016 .

There was more bad news at Weymouth, where, in the 49er class, Team GB's Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes were denied a bronze medal. by Denmark.

Hurdler Lawrence Clarke took fourth place in the 110m men's final.Clarke, 22, whose Eton schooling earned him the moniker "toff on the track", recorded a personal best to enter the final. He then ran 13.39 seconds to finish narrowly outside the medals.

Three-time Olympic medallist Tim Brabants, the defending champion, finished eighth in the final of the 1000m kayak at Eton Dorney.

Liverpool's Tom Stalker also lost his men's light-welterweight quarter-final against Munkh-Erdene Uranchimeg of Mongolia – just being edged out 23-22 after a storming final round.

Last night, British diving record holder, Stacey Powell, 26, and her teammate, Monique Gladding, 31, both unexpectedly failed to qualify for the semi-finals, finishing in 19th and 20th respectively.

It was equally bad news for 110m hurdler Andy Turner who won a bronze at last year's world championships. After a slow start and hitting the second hurdle, he finished fourth and missed out on a place in the final.

There were tears of despair from Britain's women hockey players as they lost out on a final place to Argentina. They were beaten 2-1 in their bid to face defending champions Netherlands in the final.

Shara Proctor, the British record holder for the long jump, also failed to win a medal in the women's long jump final.