Phelps wins record eighth gold

(BEIJING, August 17) -- Michael Phelps won his record eighth gold medal in the Men's 4 x 100m Medley Relay final on Sunday but this time needed some help from his friends.
The US team of Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Jason Lezak and Phelps won at the National Aquatics Center in a time of 3:29.34 and in doing so broke the world record by 1.34 seconds.
Peirsol gave them a great start with a 53.16sec split. Hansen increased the lead on the world record split taking it 0.39 seconds under at the race's halfway mark.
Brenton Rickard swam his breaststroke leg in 58.56, faster than Hansen, to bring the Australians into second place.

Phelps equals Spitz's record

Michael Phelps equalled Mark Spitz's record haul of seven golds with victory over Milorad Cavic in the 100m butterfly.

Phelps trailed the Serbian swimmer for the whole race but somehow managed to touch just 0.01 secs in front to draw level with Spitz's record, set in Munich in 1972.

The American set a new Olympic record in the process, touching in 50.58secs with Australia's Andrew Lauterstein finishing third and world-record holder Ian Crocker in fourth.

Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry finally claimed gold at the Games, winning the 200m backstroke in a world record time of 2:05.24.

Coventry's win was her first gold of the games after three second-placed finishes earlier in the swimming programme.

Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington destroyed the rest of the field in the 800m freestyle to claim her second gold of the Games, breaking one of swimming's most illustrious world records in the process.

Adlington's time of 8:14.10 was 2.12s under Janet Evans' 19-year-old world record as she added gold in the 800m to the one she won in the 400m freestyle earlier in the week.

The 19-year-old was six seconds clear of the rest of the field as Italy's Alessia Filippi took silver and Lotte Friis of Denmark the bronze.

Brazilian Cesar Filho Cielo claimed his second medal of the Games with victory in the 50m freestyle in a new Olympic record time to add to the bronze he claimed in the 100m.

Cielo touched in 21.30, 0.15 ahead of second placed Amaury Leveaux of France while his compatriot and the gold medal winner in the 100m, Alain Bernard, took bronze.

Olympic Gold medal update

Michael Phelps has created history by being the first athlete to win 11 goal medals at the Olympic Games.

The USA team wins gold in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay final in a world record time of 6:58.56 giving Michael Phelps his fifth gold of the Games.

In an earlier race, the American took 0.06 second off the previous record of 1:52.09 he set at Melbourne in March 2007 to claim his fourth gold and fourth world record in the Water Cube.

Laszlo Cseh of Hungary (1:52.70) and Matsuda Takeshi of Japan (1:52.97) claimed silver and bronze, and the European and Asian records, respectively.

Two days after setting the world record in the Women's 200m Freestyle prelims, Italy's Federica Pellegrini swam and even faster 1:54.82 to take the gold medal in Wednesday's final. Second was Sara Isakovic of Slovenia (1:54.97) with China's Pang Jiaying (1:55.05) in third.

Australia's Stephanie Rice has broken the world record in the final of the women's 200 metres individual medley in a time of 2:08.45.

Phelps bags fourth gold

Michael Phelps became the most successful Olympic athlete of all time by claiming his 10th gold medal in the 200m butterfly.

Phelps collected his fourth gold of the 29th Olympiad in Beijing to add to the six gold and two bronze medals secured in Athens four years ago.

The 23-year-old led from the halfway point but was made to battle hard to win in a world record time of 1:52.03 seconds, beating his own previous best by 0.06s ahead of Hungary's Laszlo Cseh and Japan's Takeshi Matsuda.

That keeps the American on target to win an unprecedented eight gold medals in the Chinese capital, with another on the cards later Wednesday morning in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

World records were the order of the day as France's Alain Bernard and Australian Eamon Sullivan earlier traded times in the 100 metres freestyle in the National Aquatics Centre.

Bernard clocked a time of 47.20 seconds in winning the first semi-final, beating the previous mark of 47.24s set by Sullivan in the 4x100m relay earlier this week.

But Sullivan then went even quicker in the second semi-final, recording a time of 47.05 to reclaim the record and set up a mouthwatering final showdown on Thursday.

Another world record was broken in the women's 200m freestyle, Italian Federica Pellegrini taking gold in a time of 1:54.82 to lower her own mark set earlier in the week by 0.63s.

Slovenia's Sara Isakovic claimed the silver ahead of home favourite Jiaying Pang.

Yet another world record went in the women's 200m individual medley, Australian Stephanie Rice lowering her own mark by 0.47s.

Rice took gold in a time of 2:08.45, just finishing ahead of Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry with American Natalie Coughlin third.