The Unofficial 2008 Beijing Olympics Blog

Jamaican Usain Bolt set a new world record of 19.30 seconds in the Men’s 200m final to take the gold medal in this event on August 20, at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Bolt has become the second man in history to sweep the 100m / 200m sprint double at the same Olympic Games, after Carl Lewis of the United States attained the achievement in Los Angeles in 1984.

Churandy Martina of the Netherlands Antilles took silver with a nation’s best time of 19.82 seconds, holding off bronze medalist Shawn Crawford from the United States at 19.86 seconds.

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The US Men’s 4 x 200m Freestyle team, led by Michael Phelps, crearted a world record on the way to winning the gold medal on Wednesday.

This victory keeps alive Phelps’ dream of winning record eight gold medals at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The win also brings Phelps his 10th career Olympic gold to date.

The US team of Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay led for the entire race and stretched the world record margin throughout the race.

Lochte followed Phelps’ lead-off leg and established command under the world record time by 3.63 seconds. Berens slightly increased this, handing over to Vanderkaay to anchor the relay home and extend their lead on the world record, smash it by 4.68 seconds and break the seven-minute barrier at 6min 58.56sec

US and Russia fought out the first 200m, with Australia’s Grant Hackett edging the Russians out for second place at the 400m mark. Canada enjoyed a great third leg through Brent Hayden, to give them second place behind the US at the 600m mark.

Russia’s Alexander Sukhorukov swam a fast final 200m to move past Canada and grab the silver medal in 7:03.70 which was also under the old world record.

Australia, through Nick Ffrost, also overhauled the Canadians to take the Bronze medal in 7:04.98.