Steffen the fastest female Olympic swimmer ever

American Phelps’ record eighth gold, 14 in total:

Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from China

Germany’s Britta Steffen became the fastest ever female swimmer in 112-year-old modern Olympic history when she bagged the women’s 50m freestyle gold with a new Olympic record on the final day of the XX1Xth Olympic Games swimming competition concluded at the Water Cube today.

The 23-year-old former European Champion from Berlin clocked a majestic 22.06 seconds to win the gold in style, erasing the previous Olympic mark of Inge De Bruijn of the Netherlands - 24.13 in Sydney 2000 Games. Thus, Steffen completed a memorable golden double in swimming, having won the 100m freestyle gold two days ago.

The German lass, who qualified third fastest for the final in 24.43, was not the quickest off the blocks but recovered to overpower the field and touch the wall first in a wall of white water.

The women’s 50m freestyle final was a success story of a perfect blend of experience and youth. American Dara Torres, the 41-year-old mother of one, showed age is no barrier in the splash and dash when she clocked the fastest time into the final and recorded the second fastest reaction time.

She won the silver medal (24.07), just one hundredth of a second behind Steffen.

In contrast, sixteen-year-old Aussie schoolgirl Cate Campbell, who was not even born when Torres made her third Olympics in Bercelona 1992, clocked an encouraging 24.17 to take the bronze medal.

But it was a disappointing performance by world record holder Lisbeth Trickett of Australia who had the quickest reaction time off the blocks but did not feature in the medals, finishing fourth in a time of 24.25.

The success story of ‘Baltimore Bullet’ Michael Phelps continued at the Water Cube as the American accounted for his eight gold medal of the Beijing Olympics. The 23-year-old American swim sensation won his record eighth gold medal in the men’s 4 x 100m medley relay final, but this time needed some help from his friends.

With today’s gold, Phelps become the first man to win a record eight gold medal at a single Olympic Games. His feat also improved his world record for most number of Olympic gold medals - 14, including the six gold medals he won at the last Olympic Games in Athens, 2004.

The US team of Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Jason Lezak and Phelps won the gold in three minutes and 29.34 second to shatter the world record by 1.34 seconds. The defending Olympic champions and world record holders led from start to finish.

It was Peirsol gave them a dream start with a 53.16sec split. Hansen increased the lead on the world record split taking it 0.39 seconds under at the race’s halfway mark. Brenton Rickard swam his breaststroke leg in 58.56, faster than Hansen, to bring the Australians to the second place.

However, Phelps fought off the Australian challenge in the butterfly leg before Lezak kept Eamon Sullivan on his shoulder until the wall. The Australian team of Hayden Stoeckel, Andrew Lauterstein, Rickard and Sullivan finished 0.70 seconds behind the USA to take the silver with an Oceania record 3:30.04, also under the existing old world record. Japan won the bronze with a new Asian mark of 3:31.18.

The Australian women’s 4 x 100m medley relay team made up for some disappointing performances on the last few days of competition to establish a new world record and take the gold. As the defending champions, world champions, world record holders and fastest qualifiers for the final they proved their credentials with a series of stunning swims to take the gold medal in a world record time of 3: 52.69 and slash 3.05 seconds off the old world mark.

The USA led early thanks to a blistering Backstroke leg of 58.94 from 100m Backstroke gold medalist Natalie Coughlin but the Australian team of Emily Seebohm, Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper and Lisbeth Trickett performed flawlessly to rein in the US and open up a decisive gap. Jones swam a stunning second 50m of her breaststroke leg to pull away from Americam Rebecca Soni in a world record split - 1.82 seconds under the world mark.

Schipper also swam an exceptional Butterfly leg to strengthen Australia’s lead over the US and further lower the world record split by 2.75 seconds.

China won the bronze medal in an Asian record 3:56.11. Their team was comprised of Zhao Jing, Sun Ye, Zhou Yafei and Pang Jiaying. Great Britain finished fourth but in the process managed to set a European record 3:57.50.

BEIJING, Sunday.