Olympics 2008 News
Phelps gets a fidfth gold with record-breaking relay (Urgent)
Aug 13, 2008, 3:34 GMT
Beijing - History-making Michael Phelps gave the United States a huge lead in the opening leg for Olympic gold in the 4x200 metres freestyle relay with an astonishing world record on Wednesday.
Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay smashed the old record and the magic seven-minute barrier with 6 minutes 58.56 seconds. The old record from a US team in 2007 stood at 7:03.24 minutes.
Russia got silver in 7:03.70 minutes and Australia took bronze 7:04.98 minutes.
Phelps swam an hour after getting a historic 10th career gold, in the 200m butterfly, which lifted him to the top of the all-time list, past Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, Finnish athlete Paavo Nurmi, US swimmer Mark Spitz and US athlete Carl Lewis, who have nine gold medals each.
Phelps won six golds 2004 in Athens and has five golds in Beijing from as many races contested there including Wednesday's races. He is set to compete in three more races at the Games eyeing an unprecedented eight golds at one Games.
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