MICHAEL Phelps won his third gold medal in three days when he smashed the field in the men's 200m freestyle final with one of the most incredible swims in history.
Less than an hour later, Phelps qualified fastest for tomorrow's 200m butterfly final, equalling his Olympic record of 1min 53.70sec in the semi-finals.
Pictures: Michael Phelps's bid for eight gold at Beijing Olympics.
Phelps led from the gun in the 200m freestyle, was under world-record pace the whole way and pulverised his own world mark - clocking 1min42.96sec, a time Ian Thorpe could only have dreamed of in his prime.
Thorpe never broke 1:44.00.
Phelps has now won nine Olympic gold medals, equalling the all-time record held jointly by Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi.
Grant Hackett's 1500m rivals, Korea's Park Tae Hwan and Peter Vanderkaay of the US, filled the placings.
In Athens, Phelps finished third in the 200m behind Thorpe and Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband in what was dubbed "the race of the century". The race also featured Hackett, who finished fourth.
It was the only individual race Phelps lost at the 2004 Games, where he won six gold medals and a bronze.
See how the excitement unfolded below on Beijing Now's live barrack.
August 12, 2008 is the 4th main day of the 2008 Olympic games, the below article lists some of the highlights.

===Events===
====Men's 100m backstroke====
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American Aaron Peirsol set a new world record and won the gold medal in the final of the men's 100m backstroke with a time of 52.54 seconds.

Matt Grevers, who was representing the US with Peirsol, took the silver medal, while Arkady Vyatchanin and Hayden Stoeckel tied for third place with a time of 53.18.

====Men's 200m freestyle====
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American Michael Phelps set a new world record and won the gold medal in the final of the men's 200m freestyle with a time of 1:42.96 minutes.

Taehwan Park, who was representing South Korea, finished in second place and set a new Asian record, while Peter Vanderkaay, who was representing the US with Phelps, finished in third place with a time of 1:45.14.

Phelps beat the old world record by almost one second. The Australian reported that Phelps 'shattered' the previous world record, which was also set by him.

====Women's 100m breaststroke====
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Australian Leisel Jones won the gold medal and set a new Olympic record in the final of the women's 100m breaststroke with a time of 1:05.17 minutes. 

"It has been a long journey. It's been a long eight years," said Jones,  after her victory. "And I think just a lot of relief that the training was definitely worth it."

Rebecca Soni, who was representing United States, won the silver medal, while Mirna Jukic finished in third place with a time of 1:07.34.

====Men's double trap====
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American Walton Eller set a new Olympic record in the qualification round of the men's double trap with a score of 145.

Francesco D Aniello, who was representing Italy, finished in second place, while Jeffrey Hologuin, who represented the US with Eller, finished in third place with a score of 140.

====Men's 200m butterfly====

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American Michael Phelps set a new Olympic record when he finished in first place in heat six of the men's 200m butterfly with a time of 1:53.70. This record is one of several set by Phelps during the Olympic games.

Kaio Almeida, who was representing Brazil, finished in second place, while Takeshi Matsuda finished in third place with a time of 1:55.06, 1.36 seconds behind the time set by Phelps.

====Women's 200m individual medley ====
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Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry set a new Olympic Record in semifinal of the women's 200m individual medley with a time of 2:09.53 minutes. Coventry's first fifty second were the quickest, with her first length taking only  29.17 seconds.

Stephanie Rice, who was representing Australia, finished in second place, while Katie Hoff finished in third place with a time of 2:10.90, just over one second behind the time achieved by Coventry.

===Medal Table===
''Medal Count''  update




'''2008 Olympics - Beijing, China     '''



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Total

52

52

63

167

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Source:  Beijing 2008 Official Site