BEIJING (AP):
Five world records fell yesterday at the Water Cube, with Michael Phelps winning his second gold of the Beijing Olympics.
Phelps and his teammates set a world mark in winning the 4x100 freestyle relay, barely beating France in three minutes, 8.24 seconds. In the first leg of the race, Eamon Sullivan of Australia broke the individual 100 world record in 47.24, beating the previous mark of 47.50.
"You could tell I was pretty excited," said Phelps, who is trying to win eight gold medals at the Beijing Games. "I lost my voice and I was definitely pretty emotional out there."
Defending title
Kosuke Kitajima of Japan defended his 100-metre breaststroke Olympic title in a record time of 58.91 seconds and Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe shaved two-tenths of a second off the 100-metre backstroke record to win her semi-final in 58.77. In evening races, Federica Pellegrini of Italy won her 200-metre freestyle heat in a world record 1:55.45, bettering the March 2007 mark of 1:55.52 set by Laure Manadou of France.
Phelps' attempt at breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven golds in a single Games appeared doomed when France took the lead of the relay at the 250-metre mark. They were 4.03 seconds under world record pace at 350 metres before Jason Lezak, the oldest American male swimmer at 32, rallied over the closing strokes. The US team shattered the world record of 3:12.23 they set in Sunday's preliminaries. Australia won bronze in 3:09.91.
Phelps, who swam the first leg, thrust both arms toward the roof after Lezak's incredible finish.
"I was going nuts," Phelps said. "As soon as (Lezak) came off that last wall, I started going crazy."
In shooting, Satu Makela-Nummela of Finland won the gold in women's trap, hitting 21 targets in the finals and earning a final score of 91 to set an Olympic record.
"I did not believe I would win today," she said. "It is amazing."
Giulia Quintavalle of Italy won her country's first judo gold of Games, in the women's 57-kilogramme division and Elnur Mammadli of Azerbaijan stunned world champion Wang Ki-chun of South Korea to take the men's 73-kilogramme title.
