Phelps gets his eighth as US win medley relay

The 19-year-old had already matched Mark Spitz's record of four individual gold medals in the pool. With the medley gold, Phelps tied Soviet gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin's record of eight medals in one Olympics.

American Michael Phelps made Olympic history on Saturday _ watching his teammates set a world record in the pool.

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Phelps, with five golds and two bronze medals going into the final night of swimming, won his sixth gold when the Americans won the 400-meter medley relay. Phelps gave up his spot on the relay to Ian Crocker, but was still eligible to collect a gold because he helped the American team qualify in the heats.

The 19-year-old Phelps had already matched Mark Spitz's record of four individual gold medals in the pool. With the medley gold, Phelps tied Soviet gymnast Aleksandr Dityatin's record of eight medals in one Olympics, set at the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games when most of the top western nations stayed away.

Australia picked up two golds in the pool _ Grant Hackett, the world record holder, won his second straight gold in the 1,500 meters and the women's medley relay team set a world record. Australians have won the 1,500 for the past four Olympics _ Kieren Perkins took gold in 1992 and 1996 before being defeated by Hackett four years ago in Sydney.

Britain finally struck gold Saturday, winning five events in a 10-hour span and ending a dismal first week. Bradley Wiggins took the men's 4-kilometer pursuit, adding to Chris Hoy's 1-kilometer win at the Olympic velodrome.

And there were two more golds for Britain in sailing _ Ben Ainslie in the Finn class and Shirley Robertson, Sarah Webb and Sarah Ayton in Yngling.

On the flooded grounds of an abandoned airport at Schinias outside Athens, Pinsent's boat edged Canada by .08 seconds. Both crews were forced to wait in their boats while officials reviewed a photo of the finish.

When the scoreboard showed Britain first with a time of 6 minutes 6.98 seconds, Pinsent fell backward and threw up his arms, eyes closed as he basked in the cheers. He later wiped away tears at the medal ceremony.

"When we crossed (the finish), to be honest, I didn't think we'd won," said Pinsent. "The only thing that gave it away was suddenly all the Union Jacks went up."

Joining the British crew as rowing gold medallists were Germany's Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski and Norwegian Olaf Tufte in the single sculls, Georgeta Damian and Viorica Susanu of Romania in the women's pairs, Australians Drew Ginn and James Tomkins in the men's pairs, twin sisters Georgina and Carolina Evers-Swindell of New Zealand in double sculls and Sebastien Vieilledent and Adrien Hardy of France in men's double sculls.

France was awarded the gold medal in the three-day equestrian team event, and Law got the individual gold, after three nations won a joint appeal against an earlier decision that gave both victories to Germany.

The ruling by the CAS means Britain gets the silver medal and the United States the bronze. Germany drops to fourth. Since the team event was also a qualifier for the individual medals on Sunday, the ruling lifted Law, on Shear l'Eau, to gold. American Kim Severson, on Winsome Adante, got silver, and Pippa Funnell of Britain, on Primmore's Pride, got bronze.

Earlier Saturday, Germany won in team dressage. Germans have won team gold at every Olympics since 1976, except for the boycott year of 1980 when they also won at the equestrian "alternate Olympics." China got two more golds in its marquee sports: Chen Qi and Ma Lin of China won the men's table tennis doubles; Zhang Jiewen and Yang Wei of China took women's badminton doubles. Other gold medalists included Germany in the team cycling sprint; Tang Gonghong of China in women's over-75-kilogram weightlifting and Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia in men's singles badminton. Medals were contested in 32 events on "Super Saturday." Those to be awarded later Saturday included the women's 100-meter final and discus in athletics.