The Hindu : Sport : Phelps lunge lands him alongside Spitz

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Sunday, Aug 17, 2008
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Phelps lunge lands him alongside Spitz

He finishes just one-hundredths of a second ahead of Serbia’s Cavic in the 200m butterfly

— PHOTO: AP

PHOTO FINISH: Around the half-way mark, it looked like the race was lost, but Michael Phelps used his considerable wingspan to pip Milorad Cavic at the post.

BEIJING: American superfish Michael Phelps equaled Marck Spitz' seven-gold mark with a hard-won gold medal in men's 100 meter butterfly at the Games here on Saturday.

Phelps out-touched runner-up Serbian Milorad Cavic by merely 0.01 second with an Olympic record time of 50.58 seconds. Australian Andrew Lauterstein got the bronze in 51.12.

The unstoppable Olympian removed a major obstacle on his way to an unprecedented feat of eight golds at a single Olympics.

Phelps stood upon the deck as the defending Olympic champion, face to face with Cavic as they prepare for another competition in the water.

Phelps was about half a body length behind Cavic in the first lap, and was the seventh to touch wall in the first 50 meters. But he splashed ahead in the last 50 to jittery cheers of the spectators.

World record holder Ian Crocker finished the fourth in 51.13 seconds.

Phelps again screamed and punched the water after the victory. He was so overjoyed that he barely noticed Cavic congratulating him in the pool. -- Xinhua

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