Phelps equals Spitz’ record with his seventh Gold

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from China

BEIJING, Aug. 16 - American swim sensation Michael Phelps extended his Beijing gold haul to seven medals but not before he was given a testing time by Milorad Cavic - a little known Serbian without any major world class medals.

Competing in men’s 100m butterfly final this morning, Phelps did not get the ideal start he was expecting but recovered quickly. He had a huge battle on his hands after Cavic touched first on the 50m mark at 0.09sec.

But the California-based Serbian - Milorad Cavic fired all cylinders in the final lap to increase the excitement but was unfortunate to lose by just one hundredth of a second at the end.

Phelps, who came to today’s race as the undisputed champion at the Water Cube, would never have expected such a tense finish as Cavic, who only had European Championship 50m butterfly title to his credit before today’s race.

But the 24-year-old Serbian stretched Phelps fully during the last ten metres of the race. “When I took that last stroke, I thought I have lost the race there, but it turned out to be the difference. I am just lost for words,” Phelps said alter surviving that exciting finish.

On winning his seventh gold medal at the Beijing Games, Phelps said “I think the biggest thing is when someone says you can’t do something. It shows anything is possible when you put your mind to it. I feel a little bit of everything - relief and excitement.

I has to take my goggles off first to make sure the one (number) was next to my name. When I saw the 50.58 and 50.59, I saw the rank one next to my name, that is when I sort of let my roar out,” the incredible swimmer said.

It was Phelps’ seventh gold at the Beijing Games, to equal fellow countryman Mark Spitz’ record as the only person ever to have won seven gold medals at a single Olympics. Phelps won in an Olympic record time of 50.58. Cavic finished with the silver medal in a time of 50.59.

Australian Andrew Lauterstein won the bronze medal in 51.12. World record holder Ian Crocker of the USA was completely off colour in finishing fourth with a timing of only 51.13 seconds.

Having won three silver medals at the Beijing Games, Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe finally tasted gold in the women’s 200m backstroke. In doing so, she shattered the world record in a time of two minutes and 5.24 seconds.

World record holder Margaret Hoelzer of the USA was unable to reel in Coventry and finished with the silver in 2:06.23. Japan’s Nakamura Reiko settled for the bronze medal with a new Asian record of 2:07.13.

The women’s 800m freestyle final saw Great Britain’s Rebecca Adlington breaking the oldest world record left in swimming. The British lass touched in eight minutes and 14.10 seconds to knock an incredible 2.12 off Janet Evans’ 19-year-old old world mark. Adlington took the gold ahead of Italian Alessia Filippi who won the silver in 8:20.23 and Lotte Friis of Denmark - the bronze medallist in 8:23.03.

Unheralded Brazilian Cesar Cielo Filho emerged the fastest swimmer at the Beijing Olympics. He sprang the shock of the day to win the men’s 50m freestyle final, establishing a new Olympic record time of 21.30. Frenchmen Amaury Leveaux (silver in 21.45) and 100m freestyle champion Alain Bernard (bronze in 21.49) secured the second and third places. But the biggest disappointment was the world record holder Eamon Sullivan of Australia who only managed to take the sixth place in 21.65.

Olympic rowing begins

In the Olympic rowing arena, Bulgarian Rumyana Neykova bagged gold in the women’s single sculls on the first day of medal races in Shunyi, finishing in 7:22.34 to hold off Michella Guerette of the United States by .44 seconds. Neykova nearly beat pre-regatta favorite Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus in the semifinals, falling short by just .43 seconds. But the tables were turned in the final, as Neykova grabbed a narrow victory and handed Karsten her first defeat in the Single Sculls since 2005.

Kiwi twin sisters Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell successfully defended their Athens Olympic gold by winning the women’s double sculls with a time of 7:07.32. German pair of Thiele Annekatrin and Huth Christiane were just .01 seconds behind and had to settle for silver while Great Britain’s Laverick Elise and Bebington Anna took bronze with a time of 7:07.55.

Australians Drew Ginn and Duncan Free pocketed the gold in the men’s pair by finishing in 6:37.44, 2.11 seconds ahead of second-finishers Scott Frandsen and David Calder of Canada. Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater from New Zealand, who finished in 6:44.19, won bronze.

Olaf Tufte of Norway retained his Olympic title in the men’s single sculls with a time of 6:59.83, August 16, holding off second-place finisher finisher Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic by 0.8 seconds. Third place went to Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand.