Flash: Americans clean up Men's 400m Hurdles

The United States swept all three medals in the Men's 400m Hurdles final at the National Stadium on August 18. Angelo Taylor, Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson won gold, silver and bronze medals with times of 47.25s, 47.98s, and 48.06s respectively.

Phelps: 200m Butterfly win for tenth Olympic gold

Michael Phelps swims during the final. (Photo credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images)

(BEIJING, August 13) -- "Baltimore Bullet" Michael Phelps hit his target in the Men's 200m Butterfly for his fourth gold at the Water Cube and tenth Olympic gold overall on Wednesday morning -- and did it with a new world record time of 1:52.03.

After qualifying fastest for the final in an Olympic Record time of 1:53.70. Phelps, the defending Olympic champion and world record holder, was never headed. While the margin was a little closer than predicted, Phelps was never seriously challenged in winning the gold medal.

Phelps took the race out fast and hard as he is accustomed to and the pace immediately hurt his rivals. Phelps' first split at 100m was 25.36. At the last turn Phelps was under world record pace with a split at the 150m of 1:22.75.

Lazslo Cseh of Hungary had another great swim in European Record time to finish with the silver medal in 1:52.70. Cseh is having a great Games and swimming very consistently and looks to be a great challenger for Phelps in the years to come.

Matsuda Takeshi of Japan, after being the second fastest qualifier for the final, finished with the bronze medal and an Asian Record in a time of 1:52.97.

Phelps did not have much time to take the win in as he was due out again on Wednesday morning in the 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay.

Michael Phelps swims during the final. (Photo credit: Chen Kai/Xinhua)

Michael Phelps reacts after his win. (Photo credit: Xinhua)

Women's Individual Time Trial: Armstrong mines gold

(BEIJING, August 13) -- Kristin Armstrong of the United States carved the winning difference on a long downhill section to claim the gold medal in the Women's Individual Time Trial on Wednesday.

Emma Pooley of Great Britain set an early fast time, but was knocked down to the silver medal by Armstrong's powerful performance in the second half of the one-lap, 23.5km course up and down a steep climb along the Badaling section of the Great Wall.

Karin Thurig of Switzerland took bronze less than two seconds ahead of cycling legend Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli of France.

Armstrong was four seconds slower than Pooley at the top of the main climbing section, but the 2006 world Time Trial champion powered over the second half of the course to win in 34:51.72 (40.445kph).

The gold is Armstrong's first in Olympic competition and the first by the USA Cycling team in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Pooley, who had never previously won a medal in international competition and only began racing in 2005, was almost the surprise winner in 35:16.01. The trained engineer calculated it well enough to settle for silver at 24.29 seconds slower.

Thurig scored a second consecutive Olympic bronze medal by also riding well in the second half of the course to finish with 35:50.99 at 59.27 seconds off the winning time. The two-time world Time Trial champion also won bronze in the Time Trial in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

Longo-Ciprelli, 49, narrowly missed a career fifth Olympic medal by stopping the clock in fourth place in 35:52.62, nearly one second off the podium. The French veteran is racing in her seventh consecutive Olympic Games.

Cooler weather, light winds and cloudy skies welcomed 25 starters who raced one at a time in a race against the clock, but there was none of the heavy rainfall that drenched the Women's Cycling Road Race on Sunday.

Armstrong competes. (Photo credit: Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Armstrong (C), Pooley (L) and Thurig (Photo credit: Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Lanky Texan wins gold and breaks Olympic records in the Men's Double Trap

Eller celebrates his victory. (Photo credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images)

"It felt awesome. I've been working at this for God knows how long now. The last two times I finished 17th and 12th, so I'm glad I finally made a final," said the 26-year-old Texan.

All his hard work could be witnessed in the qualification rounds, when he hit 145 targets out of a maximum 150, a new Olympic qualification record. Italian Francesco D Aniello finished the qualification rounds in second place, four points less than Eller. The other four shooters who qualified for the final were US shooter Jeffrey Holguin (140), China's Hu Binyuan (138), Sydney 2000 gold medal winner Richard Faulds of Great Britain (137) and Atlanta 1996 gold medal winner Russell Mark of Australia (136).

The final round saw Eller miss five targets, equal to the amount of targets he missed in the three qualification rounds. After Eller missed the first two targets, his opponents had some hope of victory, but the lanky American recovered and hit a total of 45 targets in the final, a good enough score to set a new Olympic record for the final score. Eller's 190 overtook the 189 targets hit by Ahmed Almaktoum of the United Arab Emirates at Athens 2004.

D Aniello and Hu both hit 46 targets in the final, earning the silver and bronze medals respectively with finals scores of 187 and 184.

Holguin (182), Mark (181) and Faulds (180) finished in the last three places. Mark's path to the final was tumultuous as he needed to win a shoot-off against three other shooters. All four shooters had hit 136 targets in the qualification rounds.

Mark needed to hit six targets in the shoot-off, eventually besting Athens 2004 gold medalist Almaktoum.

Coughlin takes gold in Women's 100m Backstroke

Coughlin competes. (Photo credit: Al Bello/Getty Images)

(BEIJING, August 12) -- Natalie Coughlin of the United States won gold medal in the Women's 100m Backstroke final on Tuesday at the National Aquatics Center in an American record time of 58.96.

Coughlin, the defending Olympic champion, was second fastest qualifier into the final and sped out hard to see off the challenge from Monday's world record setter Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe .

This was the first gold medal for the US women in what has been a disappointing Games in the pool for them so far.

World record holder Coventry qualified fastest for the final but after her busy program she was unable to match Coughlin's speed and finished with the silver medal in 59.19.

Margaret Hoelzer, also from the US, touched out Gemma Spofforth of Great Britain to take bronze in 59.34.

Coughlin poses with the gold medal. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

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(L-R) Kirsty Coventry, Natalie Coughlin and Margaret Hoelzer (Photo credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images)