Gymnastic gold and Phelps spur on U.S.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States fought back against China in gymnastics on Friday and won handsomely in the pool to restore some of the might of the traditional sporting superpower.

Nastia Liukin led a one-two U.S. victory in women's all-around individual gymnastics, relegating the Chinese to third place and denying them a four out of four sweep of golds in gym events.

"My dad is the reason why I became Olympic champion today," said Liukin after they became the first daughter-father act to win golds in artistic gymnastics. Father and coach Valery won two golds for the Soviet Union at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

On the first day of track and field events in the Bird's Nest stadium, world record holder Usain Bolt of Jamaica went through to the semi-finals of the men's 100m in ominous ease.

He sauntered through his second round race in 9.92 seconds to qualify fastest, ahead of his big rivals, American world champion Tyson Gay and compatriot Asafa Powell.

The semi-finals and final of the showcase event of the Games are in Saturday's evening session of athletics.

American Michael Phelps raced to his sixth gold and his sixth world record in the Water Cube pool, closing in on Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven golds in a Games.

The 23-year-old now has 12 career Olympic golds, three more than anyone else. Like Spitz in 1972, all of his golds at these Games have come in world record times.

Another faking controversy enveloped the opening ceremony,

underlining the enormous efforts China is making to ensure the Games are a showcase of its resurgence.

Children supposedly from different ethnic groups who carried China's red flag in a show of unity were actually mostly Han Chinese, who make up 92 percent of the 1.3 billion population.

Many ethnic groups, particularly Tibetans, chafe under Beijing's control. The stress placed by the ruling Communists on national unity is regarded by critics as code for the repression of dissent.

It is the third faking incident to hit the opening ceremony, after it emerged that computer-generated special effects had replaced "live" fireworks and an angelic little girl had lip-synched a song as the real singer was not pretty enough.

TUSSLE AT THE TOP

The quest for dominance in the medals table is proving a fascinating contest between the United States and China, which came second in Athens in 2004. With competition finished on day seven, China led with 26 golds to the Americans' 14.

The Communist Party is desperate to underline the country's growing status by overtaking the U.S. in sporting success.

But China's President Hu Jintao was disappointed when he made a rare public appearance to attend a women's volleyball clash with the Americans. The home team wasted a lead to lose.

Chinese athletes have been playing to strengths in events like diving, gymnastics, table tennis and weightlifting.

The U.S. had hoped for fast success in track and field to regain ground but Poland's Tomasz Majewski took a surprise gold in shot put, the first event to be decided.

The first track gold went to Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba in the women's 10,000 meters.

Phelps won the 200 meters individual medley and could equal Spitz in the 100 butterfly final just after 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) on Saturday. He hopes to break the record in the 4x100 medley relay final just before 11 a.m. on Sunday.

"I have to conserve as much physical and emotional energy as I can now that I'm down to the last two races," said Phelps.

Americans set world best times to win the men's 200 backstroke and the women's 200 breaststroke.

"That's the theme of the meet, you have to break a world record to win," said American silver medalist Aaron Peirsol.

LOST MEDALS

In tennis, Spain's Rafael Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic 6-4 1-6 6-4 in a superb men's singles semi-final.

Nadal had to find his best tennis to subdue Serbia's Djokovic and set up a final against Chile's Fernando Gonzalez.

Many sports are struggling under the shadow of drugs cheats, and on Friday North Korean Kim Jong-su, who won silver and bronze in shooting, became the first medalist to test positive for drugs. Organizers said he had been stripped of his medals.

The baseball park played host to a couple of politically tinged thrillers which went down to the wire. It was a good day for communism: Cuba beat the United States 5-4, and rookies China defeated Taiwan 8-7.

The match-ups perhaps meant more to the political underdogs. In Havana, Cubans crammed around TV sets late in the night, and work stopped in Taipei as enthralled locals watched the action.

"It's just like in history," said Mao Ai-fen, a government employee in Taiwan. "Last night we lost to (former colonizer) Japan, and today we lost to the Communist bandits."

(Reporting by Beijing Olympic bureau; Editing by Keith Weir)