(BEIJING, August 10) -- The lightning above the Beijing skies matched the sparks of brilliance that crackled inside the Water Cube as three world records crashed and Olympic records tumbled almost event-by-event during day two of Beijing 2008.
Michael Phelps of the United States got his Water Cube quest of becoming the first competitor to win eight medals at a single Olympic Games off to an "emotional and exciting" start by smashing the Men's 400m Individual Medley world record by an incredible 1.41 seconds.
"It's a really good way to start," said the wobbly-jawed 23-year-old defending Olympic champion, after watching the US flag flutter above the pool, as it surely will several times in the next few days.
Australian Stephanie Rice shattered the Women's 400m Individual Medley world record to win gold. The 20-year-old's winning time of 4:29.45 beat the previous record of 4:31.12 set by American Katie Hoff on July 29, 2008.
A Phelps-less US Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay team also established a world record of 3:12.23.
Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia (Photo credit: Getty Images)
Park Tae-hwan of the Republic of Korea won the Men's 400m Freestyle in a new Asian record time of 3:41.86, ahead of China's Zhang Lin, who claimed silver. Larsen Jensen (USA), who qualified fastest for the final, took bronze.
The Netherlands confirmed their dominance of the Women's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay by striking gold. The team that broke the world record for the event in March, Inge Dekker, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Femke Heemskerk and Marleen Veldhuis, comfortably beat silver medalists the United States, for whom 41-year-old Dara Torres swam a blistering final leg, by more than half a second. Defending world and Olympic champions Australia were well back in third.
Several Olympic records tumbled in the evening session: Alexander Dale Oen of Norway reset the Men's 100m Breaststroke in his semifinal; Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe and Leisel Jones of America undercut the previous Olympic bests in the Women's 100m Backstroke and 100m Breaststroke prelims; and in the Men's 100m backstroke prelim, Matt Grevers, USA, knocked 0.04 of a second off the previous record.
The poor old Women's 400m Freestyle record also took a battering -- beaten first by Katie Hoff in heat five, and then lowered by Federica Pellegrini of Italy.
Also making a splash, literally, though an elegant one, were China's golden diving duo Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia, who successfully defended their Women's Synchronized 3m Springboard crown with a score of 343.50. Russians Julia Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdnyakova finished second, with Ditte Kotzian and Heike Fischer of Germany finishing third.
Outside, the soggy weather couldn't prevent the Republic of Korea (ROK) Women's archers from setting a world and Olympic record on their way to winning their sixth consecutive Olympic gold medal. Park Sung-hyun nailed the all-important 10 ring, in a repeat final of four years ago when again China missed out. The ROK team set a 24-arrow world record score of 231 points -- an Olympic record, as the format is being featured for the first time in this Olympic Games.
Nicole Cooke (Photo credit: Getty Images)
France edged out Great Britain in the bronze medal match – however there was GB joy on the road when Nicole Cooke won the gold medal in the Women's Cycling Road Race in a wet, teeth-gritting and thrilling race that lasted over three and a half hours. Cooke's late uphill burst sealed victory ahead of Emma Johansson of Sweden, who took sliver, and Tatiana Guderzo of Italy, who earned bronze.
Fifty-year-old former Olympic gold medalist and nine-time world champion Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli of France, competing in her seventh Games, finished in 24th place.
World No. 1 Guo Wenjun of China was another Olympic record breaker in the Women's 10m Air Pistol gold medal. The 24-year-old scored 102.3 for an Olympic record overall score of 492.3. The silver medal went to Natalia Paderina of Russia (489.1 points) who shot an Olympic record 391 in the qualification round. Bronze went Nino Salukvadze of Georgia (487.4 points). Forty-two-year-old, five-time Olympic medalist Jasna Sekaric of Serbia came sixth.
Czech Republic sharp-shooter David Kostelecky put in a near perfect second day to seal the Men's Trap Shooting title. Kostelecky missed just one target in the two qualification rounds of the day, then blew the competition away by hitting 25 consecutive targets in the final.
Seventeen-year-old Long Qingquan of China became the new Olympic champion of the Men's Weightlifting 56 kilogram class after hoisting a total weight of 292kg, while Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon of Thailand took the 53kg Women's Weightlifting crown with a total of 221kg.
The defending champions of the Women's Judo -52kg weight and Men's -66kg divisions,
Long Qingquan of China (Photo credit: Getty Images)
Xian Dongmei of China and Japan's Uchishiba Masato kept a firm grip on their titles -- Xian beat An Kum-ae of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) with a yuko, while Uchishiba defeated Benjamin Darbelet with an ippon.
The Beijing 2008 Fencing tournament was far less predictable. With reigning world champion Krisztian Kulcsar of Hungary and defending champion Jerome Jeannet of France eliminated early on, the door opened for Matteo Tagliariol to secure the Men's Individual Epee gold for Italy for the first time in 40 years.
Australia and Italy both broke world records in the heats of the Men's Quadruple Sculls on the second day of the Rowing competition. Three Olympic records tumbled during the day for: Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter of Great Britain in the Lightweight Men's Double Sculls; Denmark, in the Men's Lightweight Fours; and China in the Women's Quadruple Sculls.
Australia defended their position at the top of the rankings at the end of the Dressage phase of the Olympic Equestrian Eventing competition. The team is on 102.80 penalties, ahead of Germany on a score of 110.50. The United States is third on 115.60.
In the Men's football matches, Côte d'Ivoire defeated Serbia 4-2 to seize second place in group A, behind Argentina, who have won both their opening games after beating Australia 1-0.
The United States drew with the Netherlands 2-2 to top group B with four points, followed by Nigeria, who defeated Japan 2-1 to record their first victory of the tournament. Brazil thrashed New Zealand 5-0 in group C, with Belgium beating China 2-0, and In group D Cameroon beat Honduras 1-0 And Italy beat DPR Korea 3-0.
The most intriguing match of the Men's basketball tournament saw the USA's star-studded team overwhelm China 101-70. Elsewhere there were wins for Croatia, Lithuania, Spain Germany and Russia.
The rain in Beijing badly affected the start of the Olympic tennis tournament with only a handful of games competed before play was suspended for the day.
In the Men's Singles First Round there were comfortable wins for Russian No. 4 seed Nikolay Davydenko, No. 8 seed James Blake of the United States and Athens bronze medalist Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, while another match ended prematurely when Canada's Frederic Niemeyer retired with a sore elbow.
There was lots more action -- but, frankly, after such a record–breaking day of action we're too exhausted to tell you about it. Phew!
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