Beijing 2008

2 in 2 for Phelps

Michael Phelps' dream of a record eight gold medals was dramatically kept alive by teammate Jason Lezak in a 4x100m freestyle relay thriller Monday, while the first drugs scandal of the Beijing Olympics emerged.
The win gave Phelps two golds from two events, but the kudos went to US relay anchor Lezak who dived into the pool more than a body length behind France's Alain Bernard and made up the deficit with his final strokes.
At 50m to go Lezak told himself there was "no way" he could catch Bernard and save Phelps' quest.
"Then I thought: 'That's ridiculous, this is an Olympic Games. You have to go for it'," he said.
The US took an astonishing four seconds off the world record they had set in the heats the previous day, posting a new mark of 3min 08.24 sec.
"Unbelievable!" said Phelps. "Jason finished that race way better than we could have even asked for.
"The last 10 to 15 metres were incredible. I lost my voice, and I was definitely pretty emotional after that."
Such was the pace of the race, Australia's Eamon Sullivan added to Bernard's heartache when he broke the Frenchman's 100m freestyle world record as he headed Phelps in the lead-off leg.
Despite the win, the United States remained third in the medals table at the end of the third day of competition with three gold medals behind hosts China with nine after the completion of 34 events, and South Korea with four.
China won three gold Monday, including one by Lin Yue and Huo Liang in the men's synchronised 10m platform dive where British 14-year-old Tom Daley was a distant eighth and last with teammate Blake Aldridge.
Zhang Xiangxiang and Chen Yanqing also claimed gold in weightlifting.
Phelps, who began his unprecedented eight-gold quest on Sunday with a world record win in the 400m individual medley, raced three times Monday, qualifying fourth fastest in the 200m freestyle an hour before the relay in the morning.
The 23-year-old then returned in the evening to break the Olympic record in his 200m butterfly heat.
Beijing's unique swimming venue continued to churn out world records with a total of five more on Monday.
In addition to the two in the men's relay, Japan's gold medal winning Kosuke Kitajima regained the 100m breaststroke world record he lost four years and Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe broke the 100m backstroke world record in her semifinal ahead of Tuesday's final.
Federica Pellegrini of Italy shaved 0.07sec off the women's 200m freestyle world record in her evening heat with the final on Wednesday.
Spanish cyclist Maria Isobel Moreno became the first athlete to fail a doping test at the Games, after returning a positive EPO sample.
"The IOC means business in stamping out doping," said IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies.
The Spanish rider has already left the Games village, departing hours after being tested on July 31.
Meanwhile, weightlifter Monika Devi, who was dropped from the India team on doping charges last Tuesday, has now been cleared but officials said it was too late to get her back into the Games.
India had reason to celebrate later in the day when Abhinav Bindra secured their first ever individual Olympic gold medal winning the men's 10m Air Rifle shooting.
Azerbaijan celebrated their first ever Olympic judo medal when Elnur Mammadli took just 13 seconds to beat 19-year-old South Korea's world champion Wang Ki-Chun in the men's -73kg final.
Top seeds Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal moved through to the second round of the men's singles tennis but the singles were over early for sixth seed Andy Murray of Britain who suffered an upset upset 7-6, 6-4 loss to unheralded Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan.
The women's singles suffered another withdrawal when a India's Sania Mirza retired with a wrist injury when a set down to Czech player Iveta Benesova.

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