Africans set the pace in final day marathon

The Americans will also hope to settle a score against Brazil in the men’s volleyball, after losing to them in the women’s final on Saturday.

Two golds would bring the United States up to 36 golds, level with their table-topping haul in Athens.

They would still be far behind hosts China, who have dominated the medals table from start to finish, battering all-comers into submission with 49 golds.

They won seven out of eight golds from the diving board, only pipped for the eighth by Australia’s Matthew Mitcham on Saturday night, in the final dive in the men’s platform.

Gold flowed too in badminton, gymnastics, shooting and weightlifting, but nowhere was their dominance more pronounced than on the table tennis table.

With victory in the men’s final late on Saturday, Chinese players, backed by boisterous crowds, claimed all the podium spots in the table tennis singles and won both team golds.

"Only one national flag was raised to the ceiling. It was red with five stars. This is almost miraculous, a perfect ending to the 2008 Beijing Olympics," Chinese coach Liu Guoliang said.

That China topped the medals table was widely predicted, but the size of the margin has surprised many.

With one fifth of the world’s population to choose from, China have poured billions into a Soviet-style training system geared to maximising medal success. Their new sporting superpower status reflects their emerging global economic might.

Yet there is a recognition inside China that success did not reflect large-scale participation in sport, and the ruling Communist Party acknowledges facilities need to be improved.

DAZZLING, LIGHTNING, SWIMMING

Nevertheless as the Olympic flag is lowered at Sunday’s closing ceremony and passed to 2012 hosts Britain, China’s government feels the $43 billion investment in the Games was money well spent.

Around $100 million was spent on the opening and closing ceremonies alone.

"The Chinese nation’s Olympic dream has always been bound to its course of national revival," state news agency Xinhua commented on Sunday. "The Beijing Olympic Games have added impetus for national self-confidence."

Despite a build-up dominated by talk of pollution and human rights, attention during the Games has focused on China’s dazzling venues and the scintillating sport inside them.

There were some small protests over Tibet, a couple of militant attacks in western China around the start of the Games, and the murder of a U.S. tourist.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former England football captain David Beckham will be at the Bird’s Nest on Sunday night as China hand over the baton to Britain, a nation delighted over their fourth place in the Beijing medals table.

"The golden triumphs of the present British team can only serve as further inspiration to those who will be working hard over the next four years to make the London Games a shining example of Olympic success," the Queen said in a statement.

Beckham said in an interview on Saturday China could be very proud of what they had done in staging the Olympics.

"We have seen what the Chinese have done, and I’m sure we’ll better them, without a doubt," he said.

The former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder, now playing for LA Galaxy, will be joined during London’s eight-minute slot in the Games finale by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Leona Lewis.

Beckham said he was delighted for the Chinese that all the pre-Games attention on politics quickly dissipated.

"There was obviously a lot of negativity leading up to the competition. But everyone knew that once the Games actually started, that would disappear and the success of the teams and the athletes would take over," he said.

(Reporting by Beijing Olympics bureau; editing by Jon Bramley)