Unique eighth gold beckons for Phelps
BEIJING (Reuters) - Michael Phelps climbs towards his ultimate Beijing peak on Sunday when he reaches for his eighth gold medal to surpass the record seven achieved by Mark Spitz.
Phelps survived a scare in Saturday's 100 meters butterfly, plucking victory from defeat with his final lunge to the wall to win by 0.01 seconds for the seventh gold medal which brought him level with the haul Spitz assembled at the Munich Games in 1972.
Victory for his U.S. quartet in the 4x100 medley relay at the end of Sunday's concluding session in his 17th race in nine days would lift Phelps into a realm of his own.
Seven would, in the words of Spitz before the Games, make Phelps "the second man on the Moon"; eight "first man on Mars".
Phelps's team mates in Friday's medley relay heats avoided the peril of disqualification which trapped them at last year's world championships and stranded Phelps on seven golds.
Lingering longer than usual on the blocks at each take-over, the second-string squad still managed the fastest heat time, though just 0.01 seconds faster than the Australians, who are seen by Phelps as the biggest threat in the final.
Victory for the U.S. would propel Phelps, winner of six golds in 2004, to a career total of 14 Olympic gold medals, five beyond the nine of the most prolific winners of the past.
Australia's Grant Hackett targets his own unique Olympic feat in the 1500 freestyle final when he attempts to become the first man to win the same swimming title at three Games.
Hackett, beaten for the first time in a major 1500 in more than a decade at the 2007 Melbourne world championships, has bounced back in true champion style.
He led final qualifiers in 14 minutes 38.92 seconds, a time bettered only by his 2001 world record 14:34:56, giving him a great boost for the battle to come.
Canada's Ryan Cochrane (14:40.84) and Yuri Prilukov of Russia (14:41.13) look best placed to deny Hackett an Olympic swimming event treble achieved only by fellow Australian Dawn Fraser in the 100 freestyle and Hungarian Krisztina Egerszegi in the 200 backstroke.
Age-defying Dara Torres, who won her first Olympic gold medal 24 years ago, has put herself in pole position for another at 41 by leading qualifiers for the 50 freestyle final in 24.27.
Sixteen-year-old Australian Cate Campbell, quarter of a century the American's junior, was second-quickest in 24.42.
Newly crowned Olympic 100 freestyle champion Britta Steffen of Germany, Australian world record holder and world champion Libby Trickett and Dutchwoman Marleen Veldhuis also figure high in the one-length lung-busting showdown.
Another Australia-America duel is shaping up in the women's medley relay final.
(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
