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.

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Scenes from the Water Cube – 8/16

The equestrian events continued in Hong Kong on Thursday and the Germans continued their dominance of the sport at the Beijing Games. Team Germany (anchored by Isabell Werth on Satchmo) won the Gold Medal in Team Dressage, their seventh straight Gold in that event. The Silver Medal went to the Netherlands (anchored by Anky van Grunsven on Salinero) and the Bronze went to Denmark (anchored by Andreas Helgstrand on Don Schufro), the first team dressage Olympic medal ever for that country. The United States finished in fourth place. The Canadians finished in ninth place.

The team dressage event also acts as the qualifier for the individual events, with the top 25 riders moving on to the next round. The individual equestrian events begin on Tuesday.

Germany also won Gold in the team and individual eventing competitions.

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Germany Takes Team Dressage Gold