The 2016 Olympics move into the final stretch beginning on Saturday with another full day of action that includes 21 medal events in nine different disciplines, the penultimate round in men's golf and semifinal matches in men's tennis.In addition to those marquee events, Usain Bolt will step onto the track in Rio de Janeiro for the first time in the men's 100-meter preliminaries. Assuming he moves through, Sunday will be his day to go for a third straight gold medal in the event. Before taking a dive into the individual medal events that took place on the eighth day of Olympic action, here are the latest medal standings for each nation:Cycling: Men's Team PursuitThe first medals awarded on Saturday proved to be historic for Great Britain men's cycling, which set a new world record in the team pursuit event with a winning time of three minutes, 50.26 seconds.It was also a monumental moment for Bradley Wiggins:Wiggins and his teammates,Edward Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Doull, pulled off a terrific comeback against an Australian team that was in the lead for most of the race before Great Britain turned on the jets down the stretch to capture gold and set the new world record.In the bronze-medal match earlier, Denmark cruised past New Zealand by nearly three full seconds to earn the country's fourth medal of these Olympics. Denmark came within an eyelash of challenging for the gold, finishing 0.113 seconds behind Australia during the first round. The Danish team was able to put that moment behind them quickly to salvage a medal in the event.Rowing: Men's Single ScullsIt will be hard for any event in these Olympics to top the finish of the men's single sculls final, which saw New Zealand's Mahe Drysdale squeak past Croatia's Damir Martin on a photo finish to capture a gold medal.Just in case the times for Drysdale and Martin don't properly convey how close the finish was, BBC Sport captured the image of Drysdale's scull inching past the finish line first:When the race initially ended, the graphic NBC uses to show who finished in the top three spots initially had Martin finishing first.It was so close that the last rower to put his oar in the water to get that final burst was going to come out on top. Martin and Drysdale went back and forth throughout the race, culminating in one of the most dramatic finishes of the 2016 Olympics.Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic finished third to take home the bronze medal. It's the third consecutive Olympics in which he has medaled, previously winning silver in this event in 2008 and 2012.Rowing: Women's EightThere was not as much drama in the women's eight race, though it did go as expected, with the United States capturing its third straight Olympic gold medal and 11th straight major title.Katelin Snyder,Amanda Elmore,Elle Logan,Meghan Musnicki,Tessa Gobbo,Lauren Schmetterling, Amanda Polk,Kerry SimmondsandEmily Regan bid their time most of the week after finishing first during Monday's heat.The Americans' closest competitors coming into Rio de Janeiro was the team from Great Britain, which nearly pulled off an upset earlier this year by finishing half of a boat length behind at the Rowing World Cup.Unfortunately for Great Britain, there was no miracle to be had on Saturday. The team was able to hold off a rally from a tenacious Romanian team to take home a silver medal by 0.12 seconds.Rowing: Women's Singles ScullsKim Brennan captured her first Olympic gold medal after previously winning bronze in this event four years ago. Her best Olympic finish in any event prior to Saturday was a silver medal in doubles sculls.It was unclear during the first heat if Brennan would be able to finish her quest for a gold medal after a disappointing third-place showing in which she finished 11 seconds behindKenia Lechuga.Brennan has steadily been building to this moment in the spotlight, winning gold at last year's World Championships by knocking off 2012 Olympic gold medalistMiroslavaKnapkova in the process.Gevvie Stone became the first American rower to medal in this event sinceMichelle Guerette also captured a silver medal in 2008. Stone did try to make a late run against Brennan to make the finish more dramatic, but it was not to be.Jingli Duan was the first Chinese woman to medal in the women's singles sculls. She clocked in more than one second behind Stone, but this was a breakthrough moment for her to help bring more attention to the sport in her home country.Rowing: Men's EightAfter dominating the heat, Great Britain finished the job in the men's eight by taking home the country's first gold in this event since 2000.Oliver Holt of theMailnoted after Great Britain crossed the finish line how appropriate the song choice over the sound system turned out to be:Germany, which entered the finals after winning the second heat, improved on its initial time of 5:38.22 to finish a close second to capture the silver medal. It's a disappointing finish for the team that came into the race as the favorite after winning gold four years ago.The Netherlands finished behind the United States in the repechagebut still qualified for the final by finishing in the top four. It built off that initial disappointment to take home a hard-fought bronze medal.Track and Field: Men's DiscusIt didn't quite match the drama of the men's singles sculls race, but Germany's Christoph Harting saved his gold-medal throw for the end of the men's discus.Harting moved into the top spot with a perfect throw of 68.37 meters to pushPiotr Malachowski down into the silver-medal position.Per Gracenote Olympic, Harting's win also made history because his brother previously won an Olympic gold in this event:The 33-year-old Malachowski was moments away from winning his first career Olympic gold medal. His runner-up finish marks his second silver medal of the Games, previously taking the honor in 2008.It was a good day for Germany in the discus throw, as Daniel Jasinski joined Harting on the podium with a bronze medal. He picked a good time for his best career finish in competition. The 27-year-old came in eighth at the European Championships last month.
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