Phelps on course for golden eight

Michael Phelps’ bid for a record eight golds at the Beijing Games was kept alive in dramatic fashion in the 4x100m freestyle relay as the United States snatched gold from France with a new world record.

Phelps set a blistering pace on the first leg but after 300m the American quartet trailed France and it took a brilliant swim from Jason Lezak on the final leg to win in a time of three minutes, 8.24 seconds, just 0.08 ahead of France with Australia third.

There was also a world record for Kosuke Kitajima in the 100m breaststroke, the Japanese swimmer becoming the first man to break the 59-second barrier with a time of 58.91 ahead of Norway’s Alexander Oen and France’s Hugues Duboscq.

Australia’s Libby Trickett took gold in the women’s 100m butterfly final, clocking a time of 56.73 – 0.12 seconds outside the world record.

Abhinav Bindra won India’s first medal of the Games – and the first individual gold in the country’s history – as he secured victory in the men’s 10m air rifle with a total score of 700.5.

Japanese pair Maeda Miyuki and Suetsuna Satoko sprung a surprise in the quarter-finals of the women’s badminton by knocking out the world number one duo of Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen with an 8-21 23-21 21-14 victory.