By Peter Auf der Heyde and John Bagratuni Aug 17, 2008, 16:06 GMT
Beijing - US swimming great Michael Phelps made history on Sunday when he won his eighth gold medal of the Beijing Olympics to eclipse the 36-year-old record of compatriot Mark Spitz.
On the athletics track, Jamaica made it a clean sweep of the medals in the women's 100 metres to follow up Usain Bolt's gold and world record for the country in the men's final the previous day.
Chinese athletes continued to perform strongly in gymnastics and collected further golds in diving, table tennis, badminton, wrestling, rowing and shooting.
Spain's Rafael Nadal won the men's tennis singles gold by beating Chile's Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 in the final.
Meanwhile Britain enjoyed another successful day with four more gold medals in sailing, rowing and cycling to move third in the medal table. After 166 events, China lead the way with 35 golds, followed by the United States on 19, Great Britain on 11 and Germany on 9.
On the last day in the pool, Phelps claimed his eighth gold, thanks to victory with the US men's 4x100m medley team in world record time. It made him the most successful athlete at an Olympic Games, breaking Spitz's record of seven golds at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
The US finished ahead of Australia and Japan in 3:29.34 in what was the 25th swimming world record to fall at these Games.
German swimmer Steffen secured the sprint gold double, winning in Olympic record time of 24.06 seconds, a day after winning the 100m freestyle.
Tunisian Oussama Mellouli denied Australian Grant Hackett a place in the history books as he won the Olympic gold medal in the men's 1,500m freestyle in 14:40.84. Hackett was attempting to become the first swimmer to win the 1,500m three times in a row.
The Australian women's 4x100m medley relay team also won gold shaving 3.05 seconds off their own world record when they won in 3:52.69 ahead of the US and China.
On the track, Shelley-Ann Fraser led an historic Jamaican Olympic 100m medal sweep, clocking a personal best 10.78 seconds for gold. Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart were joint silver medallists in 10.98.
It was the first sweep in Olympic 100m women's races and the first gold in the event for Jamaica. On the men's side, the US swept the 100m in 1904 and 1912.
On Saturday, Bolt had won Jamaica's first men's 100m gold in a stunning world record time of 9.69 seconds.
'I thought that if Usain can make it then I can make it, too,' said Fraser. 'At home they are probably going crazy.'
Kenenisa Bekele meanwhile won gold ahead of fellow-Ethiopian Sileshi Sihine in the men's 10,000 metres, Francoise Mbango Etone won gold for Cameroon in the women's triple jump, Slovenia got a first-ever athletics gold at the Games from hammer thrower Primoz Kozmus, and the women's steeplechase saw a world record from Gulnara Galkina-Samitova.
The Russian ran away from her rivals early as she dipped below the nine-minute mark with 8 minutes 58.81 seconds, bettering her previous world record from 2004 of 9:01.59.
Constantina Tomescu of Romania surged ahead at the halfway mark to win the marathon gold. Tomescu, 38, claimed victory in 2: 26. 44 seconds, ahead of world champion Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, who took silver as in 2004, clocking 2:27:06. The bronze went to China's Zhou Chunxi in 2:27.07.
The 2005 world champion Paula Radcliffe, who was coming into the race off a stress fracture, suffered more Olympic disappointment after failing to finish in Athens 2004. She was cramping late and finished more than six minutes behind in 23rd place, her worst ever marathon result.
Elsewhere at the Games, Xiao Qin and Zou Kai both secured gold as Chinese athletes continued to perform strongly in the gymnastics disciplines.
Xiao overcame the challenge of Croatia's Filip Ude to add the Olympic title in the men's pommel horse to his three world championship crowns while Zou took gold in the men's floor.
China's biggest disappointment came in the women's vault, which was won by North Korea's Hong Un Jong after Cheng Fei paid the price for landing on her knees on her second vault.
The host nation also got off to a good start in the table tennis competition as they won the women's team event, beating Singapore 3-0 in the final.
Among further golds for China, Lin Dan won the men's badminton singles for China by beating Lee Chong-Wei of Malaysia in the final.
Meanwhile in the fifth doping case of the Games, Olympic 400- metres hurdles champion Fani Halkia of Greece tested positive for steroids just hours before she was due to compete.
Greek Olympic officials said Halkia was on her way back home after she was caught at an out-of-competition test on August 10 using the banned substance methyltrienolone.
Your Talkback on this Story