The needle between the pair had been simmering since the heats with Lilly King wagging her own finger at a replay of Yulia Efimova mocking the American's own finger-wagging celebration. , external

It got really meta.

And the stinging quotes continued to fly deep into the post-race press conference.

Lilly King and Yulia Efimova had to attend a news conference after their women's 100m breatstroke final and, let's just say, it was anything but hugs and kisses.

Russia's Efimova won an appeal against a doping ban to compete and, after being booed by the crowd, was beaten by USA's King.

"Even just going in to your first Olympic final, any Olympic final for that matter, the pressure is going to be on," said King.

"But especially standing up for what I believe is right, I felt that I needed to perform and do better than I had in the past.

"I do think it is a victory for clean sport and just to show that you can do it while ... competing clean your whole life." Jab, jab, boom.

Image source, Getty Images

Controversial Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova was booed as she came out for the women's 100m breaststroke and ended up missing out on gold after being beaten by Lilly King of the USA.

Efimova was banned for 16 months in 2013 after traces of an anabolic steroid were found in her system.

The International Olympic Committee had ruled any Russian athlete who had been sanctioned for doping would be banned from competing in Rio, but Efimova won an appeal against the decision and was allowed to compete.

The Russian failed to win her final though as she finished second to King, who swam an Olympic record of one minute 4.93 seconds.

Image source, Getty Images

Brrrrrrr! Feel that? That is a blast from the Olympic's Cold War past as the 100m breaststroke final delivered a prime cut of US-Russia beef.

Before all that though, here is how you can catch up on Tom Daley and Daniel Goodfellow's dramatic diving bronze, "dead-eye" Ed Ling's shooting bronze and the epic, tearful scenes in the judo as Rafaela Silva wins hosts Brazil's first gold of the Games.

Enjoy.

Image source, getty

Elsewhere in Rio, London 2012 silver medallist David Florence will hope to be going one better. His canoe slalom C1 semi-final is at 17:30 BST ahead of a possible 19:16 BST final.

Tonia Couch and Lois Toulson will attempt to follow the excellent lead of Tom Daley and Daniel Goodfellow in the 10m synchro diving while Siobhan-Marie O’Connor is the quickest women into tonight's 200m individual medley final.

Meanwhile Alice Schlesinger will bid for Team GB’s first judo medal in the 63kg category and the Team GB’s eventers attempt to get the show back on the road after a setback in the cross-country element yesterday.

Gymnasticspublished at 08:09

08:09

Women's team final (20:00 BST)

They will be up against one of the most dazzling stars in the Rio firmament.

The figurehead for the defending champions United States is Simone Biles.

She is unbeaten in the all-around competition for three years and is a ten-time world champion. At the age of 19.

And the American will have bolstered her Rio support even further after getting cosy with Brazilian gymnast Arthur Mariano., external

Have a look at the extraordinary New York Times graphic sequence below to understand the full wonder of Biles ahead of tonight's final.

"I did hear a bit of crunch..I felt a little dizzy...They put me in a wheelchair, but I said no, no, get me back on the vault."

Five foot two inches of pure nerve.

Great Britain's Ellie Downie suffered an ugly-looking fall in her floor routine on Sunday, but fought on to secure Great Britain a place in the gymnastics team final. 

Today we see the reward for that courage as she, Becky Downie, Ruby Harrold, Amy Tinkler and Claudia Fragapane go in the final.

Image source, Getty Images