Michael Phelps matched fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz’s 1972 record of seven golds in one Games on Saturday, coming from behind for a fingertip victory.

　　Phelps was behind Serbia’s Milorad Cavic on his final stroke in the 100 meters butterfly but lunged his arms towards the finish to touch the electronic pad a hundredth of a second ahead.

　　Having again underlined his status as the face of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, Phelps punched the air and screamed in joy as a capacity crowd in the Water Cube rose to its feet to hail him.

　　“I’m happy and at a loss for words,” he said.

　　The 23-year-old phenomenon now has 13 career golds, four more than anyone else in the 112-year history of the modern Games. As well as Olympic glory, Saturday’s win brings him a $1 million bonus from sponsors.

　　An unfamiliar seventh at the turn, Phelps’ second length was one of the comebacks of his career. He clocked a final 50.58 seconds to Cavic’s 50.59, the finest margin possible in the pool.

　　Phelps had thought at halfway he would lose. “I was starting to hurt for the last 10 meters, it was my last individual race and I just wanted to finish as strong as I could,” he said.

　　On Sunday, Phelps can go one better than Spitz in Munich with a chance for an eighth Beijing gold in the 100m medley relay.

　　Later on Saturday in Beijing, the spotlight shifts to the Bird’s Nest athletics venue, where the fastest men on earth face off in the 100m sprint in front of more than 90,000 people.

　　Russia’s Valeriy Borchin made a triumphant entry to the stadium in the morning to take gold in the 20km men’s walk.

　　But it was hard to displace Phelps from the headlines.

　　Watched in every race by his mother and cheered to his first wins by President George W. Bush, Phelps’ success is down to a combination of natural brilliance, total focus, and the perfect swimmer’s physique of large torso and long-reaching arms.

　　Inevitably overshadowed by the American’s seemingly endless procession to top of the podium, women swimmers were nonetheless determined not to be outdone in the Water Cube on Saturday.

　　Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, who has won three silvers already in Beijing, finally struck gold in the women’s 200 meters backstroke, bringing some rare cheer to her troubled homeland.

　　Whereas Phelps failed to set a new world record on Saturday, despite doing so for his previous six Beijing golds, Coventry achieved that, shaving 0.85 seconds of the previous best.

　　Britain’s Rebecca Adlington also smashed the 19-year-old world record―she was six months old when American Janet Evans set it―to take gold in the women’s 800 meters freestyle.

　　BLUE RIBAND RACE

　　While the color-changing Water Cube building has figured large in the first half of the Games, attention is now also firmly on the equally futuristic Bird’s Nest athletics venue.

　　The Games’ blue riband track race, the 100m sprint, takes place in the evening in front of more than 90,000 people, and millions worldwide, in the Bird’s Nest stadium.

　　It looks like a fascinating three-man, two-nation affair.

　　Jamaica’s Usain Bolt seemed in superb form in the heats on Saturday, having time to look around and still win his second round race in the day’s best time of 9.92 seconds.

　　Bolt has burst on to the 100m scene in the last year, shouldering aside American world champion Tyson Gay and fellow Jamaican former world record holder Asafa Powell.

　　Formerly a 200m specialist, Bolt set a new world best of 9.72 in the 100m in May. He hopes to be the first man to complete the 100m and 200m Olympic double since American Carl Lewis in 1984.

　　A new world record looks feasible, given the tall 21-year-old appeared to have so much to spare on Friday. “I looked around to make sure I was safe and I shut it off,” he said.

　　Despite its tradition of producing world class sprinters, Jamaica has yet to win a men’s 100m gold and the islanders will be watching tensely at 10.30 p.m..

　　Powell complained of stomach ache but comfortably won his second heat on Saturday in 10.02 and is still in the hunt for a first global title.

　　Gay took gold in both the 100m and 200m at the world championships last year but a hamstring injury is restricting him to just the 100m in Beijing.

　　China lead the gold medal table with 26 to the United States’ 14. The hosts came second in Athens 2004 and are eager to go one better in front of their own 1.3 billion people.

　　China’s rise to sporting superpower status reflects its new global economic clout. The Beijing Games are the culmination of its desire to project a new image on the world stage.

　　Many athletes had expressed concerns over Beijing’s pollution problems, but Saturday was a second consecutive gloriously sunny, blue-sky day.

　　Authorities have pulled several million cars off the road and shut factories to try and guarantee clear air.