BEIJING (Reuters) -- Britain notched their highest gold medal tally in a century on Tuesday with three more victories in cycling and sailing for the 2012 Olympics hosts.

That cemented Britain's unexpected third place in China, with 15 golds the best since the 1908 London Games and the perfect way to fire up enthusiasm at home for the next Olympics.
Hosts China are way ahead on 42 golds though, their seemingly unassailable lead helping dull some of the national pain over the withdrawal through injury of track idol Liu Xiang.
The United States are second with 25 golds on Day 11 and face a near-impossible task to catch China, whose medal haul reflects their new global economic and political might.
While China's rise may be inevitable, given it has one fifth of the world's population to choose from, Britain's success was more surprising. Even traditional rivals were impressed.
“They're certainly serving it up,” Australia's Olympic Committee president John Coates said. “Their new-found cockiness has got some substance to it.”
Nowhere have the Britons been cockier than on bikes.
Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton won a couple more golds in the men's and women's sprints, making it a remarkable eight Beijing golds on road and track for the new cycling superpower.
In Qingdao, on China's east coast, Paul Goodison made up for disappointment in Athens, where he nearly quit, by winning the sailing Laser title.
Britain's success, which has come chiefly in cycling, rowing, sailing and swimming, is attributed mainly to heavy new investment in sport. That has allowed athletes and coaches to train full time, as well as seen improvements in facilities.
Much of the money has come from a national lottery.
“We can rule the waves again,” Britain's top-selling Sun said, catching the wave of patriotism.
Chinese leaders and people alike showered their injured Olympics 110m hurdles champion Liu with get-well messages a day after he limped forlornly off the track, depriving the hosts of what they hoped might be their greatest single moment of glory.
Liu, who along with basketball player Yao Ming is China's most idolized sportsman, surfaced on Tuesday, vowing not to quit.
“There'll be opportunities next year ... I'm still in peak condition,” he said, calm voice belying a face etched with pain.
South American soccer showdown
Liu took gold in Athens in 2004, becoming the first man to win a track-and-field event for China.
His -- and China's -- great dream was to repeat the feat at home. But local fans who openly wept at Liu's exit were cheered by a glance at the medal table on virtually every front page.
“There is basically no worry about top spot,” state news agency Xinhua said, eschewing China's pre-Games caution.
The locals are loving it: one man cycled 1,300km (800 miles) to tow his 98-year-old grandmother to the Games in a pedicab.
Further cheering the Chinese national mood, environmental authorities said Beijing had enjoyed its cleanest air in 10 years this month despite athletes' pre-Games fears.
Officials promised not to let that slip after the Olympics.
“We will take some new measures to ensure that air quality will reach a new level after the Olympic Games,” environmental official Du Shaozhong said on another sunny day in Beijing.
One man whose lungs definitely were not affected by the heat, or any lingering smog, was Germany's triathlete Jan Frodeno.
The 27-year-old outsider, who only took up triathlon to impress a girl, broke away from three of the sport's biggest names at the end to win the swim-bike-run endurance test.
“During the race I told myself: 'Boy, be greedy -- it's champagne or fizzy water',” said the former lifeguard.
Germany also had success in weightlifting, Matthias Steiner winning gold in the men's super-heavyweight class to lay claim to the title of world's strongest man. Choking back tears on the podium, Steiner held up a photo of his late wife, to whom he had promised Olympic success when she was dying from a car crash.
Though the “beautiful game” has long played second fiddle to other sports at the Olympics, fans awaited a mouth-watering semi-final on Tuesday between soccer powers Argentina and Brazil.
Brazil have won five World Cups but never an Olympic gold.
Nigeria reached the soccer final for the first time since winning gold 12 years ago with a 4-1 thrashing of Belgium.
-