Supporters of Darwinian evolution must have a smile on their face every time they watch Michael Phelps swim, because surely the American is an evolutionary step above the rest of us mere mortals. Phelps won his third gold of the XXIX Olympiad, and his eighth of his career with a totally dominant display in winning the Men's 200m Freestyle in world record time. Almost a body length in front after only 50 metres, Phelps rivals were no match for him as he powered away to win by almost 2 seconds from 400m Freestyle gold medallist Park Tahewan (Korea) and countrymen Peter Vanderkaay. Phelps shaved almost an entire second off his own world record to be the first man to swim under 1 minute 43 seconds. He now lies just one short of Carl Lewis's record 9 Olympic gold medals, and can better that today with opportunities to win his 9th and 10th gold medals respectively in the 200m Butterfly and Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle relay (the US B team having broken the Olympic record already in the heat!).
Swimming
As expected, Liesel Jones grabbed Australia's third gold of the games, and her first individual gold medal, with an easy victory in the Women's 100m Breastroke. She also cruised through to the semi's of the 200m Breastroke in her heat over night. World record holder Aaron Peirsol (US) became the first man to defend the 100m Backstroke title, setting a new world mark in the process. Australian's Hayden Stoeckel and Ashley Delaney just missed the medals finishing 4th and 5th respectively. Aussie golden girl Stephanie Rice, as well as countrywomen Alicia Coutts both qualified for today's final of the Women's 200m IM, with Rice looking to do the double after taking gold in the 400m IM.
Equestrian
Australia gained a silver in the team 3-day eventing competition, after a near faultless display of showjumping by the Germans allowed them to hold onto their lead following the cross-country, and take the gold.
Diving
The Australian pair of Briony Cole and 16-year old Melissa Wu won silver in the Women's Synchronised 10m Platform competition. The Chinese pair took the gold, making it a clean sweep for China in the 3 diving events contested at the games so far.
Canoe/Kayak - Slalom
Australian Robin Bell avenged his 4th place in Athens with a bronze medal in the Men's Canoe (C1) Slalom. In the Kayak division, Benjamin Boukpeti (Togo) became the first athlete from the tiny African nation to win an Olympic medal when he took bronze.
Rowing
Australia's Men's Eight, including flag-bearer James Tomkins, kept their medal hopes alive, finishing second in their repercharge to move through to the final.
Sailing
Both Australia's Men's and Women's boats in the 470 class lead their respective division after four races.
Water Polo
Australia's Men's Water Polo team slipped to 1-1 from their 2 pool games so far after a close 9-8 loss to Spain yesterday.
Basketball
The Boomers fell to 0-2 at this years Olympics after an 85-68 loss to defending gold-medalists Argentina. They will have to get wins on the board quickly if they are to get out of the group stage (they won't!).
Tennis
Australia's last remaining singles hope, Lleyton Hewitt, was comprehensively beaten by Rafael Nadal (Spain) 6-1, 6-2 in Round 2 of the Olympic Tennis tournament. Hewitt will face Nadal again in the second round of the Men's Doubles, when he teams up with Chris Guccione.
Medal Tally after Day 4:
1 - China - 13-3-4 (20)
2 - USA - 7-7-8 (22)
3 - Korea - 5-6-1 (12)
6 - Australia 3-2-5 (10)
Channel 7 Bullshitmetre - In Cole and Wu's post silver medal presentation interview with Channel 7, the interviewer suggested that Briony Cole must be especially appreciative of winning silver given the hardships she has gone through with injuries in recent years. Cole was quite shocked and replied that she had never really suffered from any serious injury. I guess that's the kind of journalism you get when you get stale old Channel 7 lackey's reporting rather than experts in the particular field.
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