Jones wins 100m breaststroke gold
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Leisel Jones claimed her first individual Olympic gold medal and Australia's third in Beijing with a thumping victory in the women's 100 metres breaststroke final at the Water Cube.
Jones went into the final as a red-hot favourite after swimming more than a second faster than her nearest rival in the semi-final, and comfortably took gold in an Olympic record time of 1:05.17.
Jones says all that mattered today was to hit the wall first, something she could not manage as an individual in an Olympic event at either the Sydney or Athens Games.
"A little bit of shock, and probably more relief I guess," she said.
"It has been a long journey. It's been a long eight years.
"And I think just a lot of relief that the training was definitely worth it. I couldn't care less about the time.
"An Olympic gold is an Olympic gold. It really didn't matter how it went, how I raced I couldn't care less."
Jones says she was excited before the race.
"I had a pretty bad sleep last night," she said.
"I woke up and I was just so excited. I think I was excited about racing.
"I was almost skipping out there I was so excited. I really enjoyed it."
Aiming for London
Jones suggested she would keep swimming with London in 2012 in mind.
"I think I've enjoyed it so much, I think I would hate to finish and know there was still a flame burning inside," she said.
"I think I've still got so much more growing to do, and so much more learning.
"Amanda Beard's on her fourth Olympics, so it's certainly not out of the question."
Jones emerged from the blocks at the head of the field slightly in front of compatriot Tarnee White, and split the 50m inside world record time.
She powered away in the final 50m to finish well ahead of American Rebecca Soni (1:06.73) and Austrian Mirna Jukic (1:07.34).
White faded towards the back end of the race to finish in sixth position in a time of 1:07.63.
While she was happy with the gold, Jones says it was her win at the World Championships in Canada in 2005 that remains her proudest achievement.
"Olympic golds are important, but in terms of personal experience and in terms of personal growth I think that was my most important swim.
"Olympic gold is really nice, it's what we all come here for.
"But certainly Montreal was more about my personal experience.
"And I think that will still reign over this Olympic gold, because I found out so much of myself.
"After Athens I learned so much. And that was my first individual World Championship [gold].
"I think that one probably still is more important to me than this."
Jones says she managed to stay composed after the race until she saw her coach Rohan Taylor.
"I certainly wasn't composed once I got through the media and I pretty much lost it when I saw Rohan and then when I saw my mum I just lost it," she said.
After bursting onto the scene with a silver medal in the 100m in Sydney as a 14-year-old, Jones could not crack gold in the 100m or 200m in Athens, but she says that experience has helped her enjoy her time in Beijing.
"It's hard at the time to deal with criticism, and I copped a lot of it in Athens," she said.
"It's really difficult but it's made me a much stronger person and has made this performance much sweeter."
Jones swam 1:05.80 to comfortably win the second semi, ahead of second-fastest qualifier Soni. Jukic started from lane three after recording 1:07.27 in the semis.
View historical results from the women's 100m breaststroke.
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