Scenes from the Water Cube – 8/16

Michael Phelps continues to be the most popular and fascinating story from the Water Cube, but he is far from the only story. Below is a summary of what happened at the National Aquatic Center on Friday. Sunday concludes the swimming competition.

Great Britain\’s Rebecca Adlington won Gold in the long distance swimming race, the women\’s 800m freestyle, giving her country its first Gold Medal in that event in more than 80 years. She won with a world record time of 8:14.10, breaking the record set by Janet Evans in 1989. Adlington was followed by Alessia Filippi of Italy for the Silver Medal and Lotte Friis of Denmark for the Bronze.

Kate Hoff of the United States failed to qualify for the final.

Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe finally got to stand atop the medal stand in Beijing, winning the women\’s 200m back stroke event with an Olympic record time of 2:05.24. Margaret Hoelzer of the United States earned the Silver Medal and Reiko Nakamura of Japan was awarded the Bronze.

Coventry has won three Silver Medals in Beijing.

In the fast-paced men\’s 50m freestyle event, Brazil\’s Cesar Cielo Filho bested an all-star field to win the Gold Medal, the first ever swimming Gold for Brazil, setting a new Olympic record of 21.30. The Silver went to France\’s Amaury Leveaux and the Bronze went to fellow Frenchman, Alain Bernard. Australia\’s Eamon Sullivan, the world record-holder, finished sixth.

In the men\’s 100m butterfly event, Michael Phelps continued his winning streak by the narrowest of margins–just .01 seconds. He earned his seventh Gold Medal of the meet with a new Olympic record of 50.58. Following him were Milorad Cavic of Serbia for the Silver Medal and Andrew Lauterstein for the Bronze.