Usain Bolt was crowned the world's fastest man when he raced to victory in the blue riband Olympic men's 100 metres final in a world record time of 9.69sec here Saturday. The 21-year-old who had cruised through the heats and semi-finals beat home Richard Thompson of Trinidad and American Walter Dix as the first six runners all went under the 10 second barrier, a record for an Olympic final.
"I came here just to win and I did just that. I didn't even know I'd broken the world record until I did my victory lap," Bolt said. "Now I'm just concentrating on my two races coming up. I came here prepared and I'm going to try and do it the (100 and 200m double)," he said, capping an extraordinary eighth day of the Games which started and ended in record fashion.
A desperate last lunge by swimming sensation Michael Phelps in a knife-edge 100m butterfly final earned him a record-equalling seventh Olympic gold medal by one-hundredth of a second. Phelps' quest for Olympic immortality seemed derailed when seventh at the turn, but he stormed home to claim a finger-tip victory over Serbia's Milorad Cavic. Serbia protested but a frame-by-frame replay confirmed the result.
Phelps stunning performance where he made up more than half a second in the final 50m saw him draw level with fellow US pool legend Mark Spitz's record of seven golds at one Games set 36 years ago. "When I did take that extra half stroke I thought I'd lost the race. I'm really lost for words," a thrilled Phelps said. Phelps is one swim away from breaking Spitz's mark in the 4x100m medley relay which brings the curtain down on pool competition on Sunday.
China stayed firmly at the head of the medals table with 27 gold, closing rapidly on its best performance of 32 in Athens, while the United States are second with 16, followed by Germany on eight. At the pool, Phelps exceptional swim was the only one of his gold medal swims this week where he has failed to break the world record.
But in a day of exceptional performances Britain's Rebecca Adlington shattered the longest-standing world swimming record, the women's 800m freestyle, taking 2.12secs off the 19-year-old mark set by American great Janet Evans in 1989. In terms of endurance Romanian rower Georgeta Andrunache is on the brink of history after she and partner Viorica Susanu won the women's pair.
It was Andrunache's fifth gold medal, bringing her level with rowing legends Steve Redgrave and her compatriot Elisabeta Lipa, and she has a chance to win an unprecedented sixth in the women's eight on Sunday. British cyclist Rebecca Romero is assured of a place in Olympic history for winning medals in two sports after qualifying for the women's individual pursuit final.
Romero won a rowing silver in Athens four years ago. Switzerland's Roger Federer made up for some of the disappointment of falling early in the tennis singles when he partnered Stanislas Wawrinka to the men's doubles gold medal, beating Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson of Sweden 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3 in the final.
"It's the moment you dream of being in, even though there is so much pressure to it," said Federer. Serbia tasted success over the United States away from the pool when Novak Djokovic beat James Blake 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) for the men's singles bronze medal.
Dinara Safina and Elena Dementieva set up an all-Russian women's singles final eliminating Chinese giant-killer Li Na while fifth-seed Dementieva beating fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva. China's drive to clinch all five badminton titles stumbled when Indonesians Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan defeated China's Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng in the men's doubles final. In an all-China women's singles final, defending champion Zhang Ning upset world number one Xie Xingfang.
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