Phelps wins 8th gold, China surpasses Athens haul

BEIJING, Aug. 18 (PNA/Xinhua) -- American swimmer Michael Phelps broke Mark Spitz's record of gold medals in a single Olympics, set in Munich in 1972, while Shelly-Ann Fraser led a Jamaican sweep of medals in the women's 100m at the Beijing Games on Sunday.

Fraser clocked 10.78 seconds to win the blue-ribbon event, a day after compatriot Usain Bolt taking the men's 100m title in a world record time of 10.69 seconds.

Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart, both also from the Caribbean island nation, shared silver in 10.98 after a photo finish couldn't tell.

"Last night was amazing, it was crazy. I was inspired by Usain and Asafa (Powell, fifth in men's 100m)," said Fraser.

Phelps rounded out his eight-gold quest, which was perceived by many as "A Mission Impossible", when the U.S. team won the men's 4x100m medley relay in a world-record of 3 minutes, 29.34 seconds Sunday, lowering the old mark of 3:30.68 set four years ago in Athens. The American quartet also included Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen and Jason Lezak.

Along with the six golds he won in Athens in 2004, the 23-year-old Phelps has the most gold medals overall in Olympic history - 14, far ahead of legends Spitz, Carl Lewis, Paavo Nurmi and Larysa Latnina, who won nine Olympic golds each in their career.

"Nothing is impossible. With so many people saying it couldn't be done, all it takes is an imagination, and that's something I learned and something that helped me," said Phelps.

What made Phelps' feat even more marvelous was the fact that seven world records were set or shared by him in the process.

"I literally wanted to do something that no one's ever done before in this sport. Without the help of my teammates it wouldn't have been possible," he said.

Despite Phelps' achievement, the US is lagging behind China in the ballyhooed race to pocket the most Olympic golds in Beijing. At the end of Day 9, China has garnered 35 gold medals, three more than its total haul in Athens four years ago, while the Americans had only 19 golds.

The hosts' 32nd gold came from Xiao Qin who beat an elite field of men's pommel horse. Earlier, fellow Chinese Zou Kai captured the men's floor exercise title, and Wang Jiao overwhelmed two-time world champion Stanka Zlateva of Bulgaris to strike gold in the women's freestyle wrestling 72kg.

China also clinched its first ever Olympic rowing gold when the quartet of Tang Bin, Jin Ziwei, Xi Aihua, Zhang Yangyang edged world champion Britain in the women's quadruple sculls event.

"Rowing is a sport which the Europeans have been good at for a long time, but we proved the Chinese can also do well in this sport," said Xi Aihua.

American Matthew Emmons, who fired at the wrong target and gifted Chinese Jia Zhanbo the gold in Athens, failed his last shot again to hand Qiu Jian of China the gold in the men's 50m rifle three positions.

Leading by 3.3 points and needing only a mediocre shot of 6.7 to dispel the 2004 ghosts, Emmons fired a 4.4 on his final attempt to drop to fourth.

"I did not feel my finger shaking, but I guess it was," he said.

The unexpected gold helped China top the final shooting medals table with five golds, followed by the United States, the Czech Republic and Ukraine with two each.

Guo Jingjing lived up to her fame of "Queen of Diving" when she took the the 3m springboard title to repeat the double golds she claimed in Athens.

The 26-year-old Chinese, who paired up with Wu Minxia to win the synchro last Sunday, became the first ever diver who won back-to-back Olympic individual and synchro titles.

Chinese divers are a perfect 5-for-5 so far at the Games and heavily favored to capture the remaining three golds on offer in the sport.

China's Lin Dan made amends for his shock first-round elimination in Athens when he thrashed Malaysian Lee Chong-wei 21-12, 21-8 to win the men's singles badminton gold.

After winning the lopsided match, the world number one pumped his fists in the air and gave his trademark victory salute. To a backdrop of deafening cheers from local fans waving Chinese flags, he then threw his racket and shoes to the stands.

"I think it is one of the best performances of my career," said Lin. "My mind went totally blank and I just didn't know what to do when I won the medal."

Meanwhile, the all-conquering Chinese table tennis squad began their quest for a sweep of four gold medals on a winning note, with the trio of Zhang Yining, Wang Nan and Guo Yue thrashing Singapore 3-0 in the women's team final.

After four golds on Saturday, Britain's sailors, rowers and cyclists added four more to lift their total to 11 golds, moving them up to third place in the overall medal table.

At the Water Cube, Germany's Britta Steffen won the women's 50m freestyle by the slightest margin to add to her 100m freestyle triumph. Steffen touched home in an Olympic record time of 24.06 seconds, just one hundredth of a second ahead of U.S. five-time Olympian Dara Torres.

Grant Hackett's bid for a third straight title in the men's 1,500m freestyle was foiled by Tunisia's Ous Mellouli. Melloui held off the Australian veteran in the late stage and finished in 14:40.84 to give the African country its first Olympic swimming gold. Hackett was second in 14:41.53.

Australia defeated the United States to win the women's 4x100m medley relay in a world-record time of 3:52.69. The previous world mark of 3:55.74 was also set by Australia at last year's world championships in Melbourne.

Romania took its first track and field gold with Constantina Tomescu in the women's marathon. The 38-year-old veteran beat a field of 81 competitors to finish the 42.195-kilometer race in a season-best time of two hours, 26.44 minutes.

"The experience of age helped me," Tomescu told reporters. "I have raced a lot before, I know a lot about running."

Kenya's Catherine Ndereba was second in 2:27.06, just a second ahead of Zhou Chunxiu of China.

"I think I performed quite well today. Although I couldn't catch Ndereba, I tried my best and I'm really satisfied with the result," said Zhou.

The women's steeplechase, which was making its Olympic debut in Beijing, witnessed a world record performance from Russian Gulnara Galkina-Samitova, and the hammer throw gold went to Slovenia's Primoz Kozmus.

Galkina-Samitova, 30, finished in 8 minutes 58.81 seconds, beating her own world record by more than three seconds.

World record holder Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia clocked 27:01.17 to retain his Olympic 10,000 meters title, while Cameroon's Francoise Mbango Etone also successfully defended her Olympic crown in triple jump with a leap of 15.39m.

In tennis, world number one Rafael Nadal of Spain crushed Chilean Fernando Gonzalez in straight sets to claim the men's singles title, while Elena Dementieva beat fellow Russian Dinara Safina 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 to win the women's singles gold.