Phelps rewrites gold record books
Michael Phelps became the most successful Olympic athlete of all time by claiming the 10th and 11th gold medals of his amazing career.
Phelps collected his fourth gold in Beijing in the 200 metres butterfly and made it five out of five just under an hour later in the 4x200m freestyle relay - both in world record times.
Added to his six golds from Athens four years ago, the two victories saw Phelps surpass the nine golds won by Paavo Nurmi, Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz and Larysa Latynina to cement his place in Olympic history.
As expected, Phelps then led off a dominant American quartet in the 4x200m relay, swimming the first leg more than two seconds under world record schedule.
His team-mates Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay carried on where he left off and eventually clocked a new world record time of 6:58.56, the first time the seven-minute barrier has been broken and almost five seconds quicker than their previous best.
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.
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.
Three-time world champion Kristin Armstrong of the United States claimed the gold in the women’s individual time trial, clocking a time of 34:51.72 over the 23.8km course.
Emma Pooley of Great Britain clinched silver with a time of 35:16.01 and the bronze went to Karin Thurig of Switzerland in 35:50.99.
China made history by winning their first gold medal in the team event of the women’s gymnastics with a total of 188.900 points.
It was China’s 14th gold medal of the Games.
The United States took silver medal with a total of 186.525 and Romania claimed bronze with a 181.525 points.
