As the Beijing Olympics reached its twilight period, there were still some athletes waiting to secure their destinies. Two hot favourites were in action in different arenas.

In the Bird's Nest on Saturday night Croatia's Blanka Vlasic entered the women's high jump final as world champion and the girl to beat. On the basketball court USA took on world champions Spain in the men's final, seeking national redemption for their recent performances at major competitions.

In the high jump Vlasic started well and looked strong clearing every jump from 1.85m to 2.03m. With her competitors failing heights from 1.99m it looked like Vlasic was a few centimetres stronger than her opponents. But in Olympic finals, you have to perform magically at certain moments, and Vlasic failed to do so. The Belgian jumper Tia Hellebaut, who had needed two attempts to clear 1.99m, 2.01m and 2.03m, managed to nail the 2.05m jump at first attempt. Vlasic, who had cleared all those heights at first attempt, required two jumps to leap over 2.05m. That gave Tia the advantage and when Blanka failed to lift herself over the 2.07m bar, Olympic gold went to the Belgian. Vlasic won 18 of 19 competitions in 2007. But with Hellebaut jumping a national record, and Vlasic failing to match her 2.07m personal best, the Belgian had performed on the day and caused a great upset.

There was a lesson to be learnt there for Team USA. They had looked invincible throughout the tournament, thrashing Spain in the preliminaries by 37points then knocking Olympic champions Argentina out at the semi-final stage. But an off-day could see it all count for nothing. And it nearly happened.

The game was open and fast paced, resembling an All-Star game. Spain stayed organised and what they lost in athleticism they made up for in movement and execution. Spain maintained pressure throughout and with 2 ½ minutes remaining USA were ahead by just four points. Were USA about to do a Vlasic? No, they performed well in the clutch, as you'd expect from Bryant and James, and drew a lot of fouls to frustrate the Spanish and seal redemption with a 118-107 victory.

Dwayne Wade was the star performer, hustling in defence and exploding down the court on the fast-break. At 6'4'' Wade is relatively small but he can be so explosive as he drives and leaps to the hoop. The Miami Heat star was the Finals MVP in 2006 but has struggled with injuries the last two years with shoulder and knee problems. Clearly he is now rehabilitated and ready to lead Miami back to the top.

The winners in the women's high jump and men's basketball both managed to control their emotions and perform when it mattered. They also showed terrific jumping ability in different styles, Hellebaut setting a national record to clear 2.05m at her first attempt, Wade on his way to scoring a team high 27points.

Here's how your arms can help you rise to great heights:

The use of the arms and free leg (when jumping from one leg) are, like angle of take-off, equally important determinants of jump distance. In an effort to discover exactly how much contribution the arms make to standing long jump distance, researchers from the University of Texas used computer modelling to investigate what effect free and restricted arm movements had. They found that simulated jump distances were 40cm longer when arm movements were free. Arm movement allowed for a 15% increase in jump velocity of the centre of gravity. More specifically, this was attributed to an additional 80 joules of propulsive work done by the shoulder muscles.

In order to benefit from this extra energy during sports activity, you need to vigorously swing your arms back and forward as they rise and fall with your thigh movements, timing the arm swing past your legs to coincide with the leg drive into your take-off. This will maximise jump speed (provided of course you aim for a take-off angle of between 19-27 degrees). Arm action is crucial to optimum performance, whatever the jump.The high jump is the ultimate test of vertical jumping ability. The men's world record stands at an incredible 2.45m and was set by Cuba's Javier Sotomayor in 1993.

Researchers from John Moores University in the UK, have looked specifically at how the free limbs are used by elite high jumpers in generating vertical velocity. Six elite male high jumpers were subject to tests that enabled the researchers to determine the power and speed of the jumper's joint motions at take-off. It was discovered that the arms had a greater influence on take-off performance than the free leg. This seemed to be as a result of the limited ability of the free leg to drive further into the jump once the take-off foot was grounded and extending into the jump, and was in contrast with the ability of the arms to drive more forcibly through into the jump.

In all it was estimated that the free limbs contributed 7.1% of whole-body momentum at take-off. The researchers concluded that in order to maximise the contribution the free limbs can make to performance, the arms should have a vigorous downward motion at touch-down (take-off) to make the most use of the high (but little changing) relative momentum of the free leg.

Learn how to improve your jumping performance with this jumping training programme!