Absent Phelps gets eighth medal

The United States broke the world record to win the men's 4x100 metres medley relay at the Athens Olympics yesterday and allow Michael Phelps to match Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin's 1980 record for the most medals at one Games.

The 19-year-old American did not swim the final, the last swimming race at the Games, after giving up his spot to Ian Crocker but still gets a medal because he contested the heats, giving him a total of eight for the week, including six gold.

Crocker, swimming butterfly, teamed up with backstroker Aaron Peirsol, breaststroker Brendan Hansen and freestyle anchorman Jason Lezak to finish first in three minutes 30.68 seconds, 0.86 inside the previous world record the US set last year.

Peirsol also broke the individual world record for 100 backstroke, clocking 53.45 seconds on the opening leg to beat the previous mark of 53.60 set by his compatriot Lenny Krayzelburg five years ago.

A quarter of an hour earlier, Australia broke the world record in the women's medley relay to give Jodie Henry and Petria Thomas their third golds of the Games.

Henry and Thomas teamed up with backstroker Giaan Rooney and breaststroker Leisel Jones to win gold in a time of 3:57.32 seconds, wiping almost a full second off the previous record of 3:58.30 set by the US at the last Olympics.

The US finished with the silver in a time of 3:59.12 after leading for the first 250 metres while the bronze went to Germany in 4:00.72.

Jenny Thompson, swimming the butterfly leg for the Americans, collected her 12th medal, the most by any swimmer, in her fourth and probably last Olympics. The previous record of 11 was jointly held by Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi.

Grant Hackett, unbeaten for seven years over 1,500 freestyle, won the longest and most gruelling event on the swimming programme for the second time as Australia won two of the four titles on the final night of swimming.

Hackett pulled away to win by three metres at the end with Jensen holding on for second and Briton David Davies third in a European record time of 14:45.95