Olympics: Michael Phelps Wins Record Tenth Gold

Michael Phelps has won his fourth gold medal of the Beijing Games in the men's 200m butterfly final in a world record time of 1:52.03 on a morning of tumbling records at the National Aquatics Center in Beijing.

The American pipped Laszlo Cseh of Hungary by 0.67sec, with Japan's Takeshi Matsuda taking the bronze in 1:52.97. Early challenger Moss Burmester of New Zealand came in fourth.

The American led from the halfway point but was pushed hard in beating his own previous best by 0.06sec ahead of Hungary's Laszlo Cseh and Takeshi Matsuda of Japan. Victory keeps the 23-year-old on target to win an unprecedented eight gold medals in the Chinese capital, with another on the cards later this morning in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

Earlier France's Alain Bernard and Australian Eamon Sullivan traded world records in the men's 100m freestyle. Bernard clocked a time of 47.20sec in winning the first semi-final, beating the previous mark of 47.24sec set by Sullivan in the 4x100m relay earlier this week.But Sullivan promptly surpassed the Frenchman's time in the second semi-final, recording a time of 47.05 to reclaim the record and set up a tantalizing final showdown tomorrow.

Another world record was broken in the women's 200m freestyle, Italian Federica Pellegrini taking gold in a time of 1:54.82 to better her own mark set earlier in the week by 0.63s. Slovenia's Sara Isakovic took the silver ahead of home favorite Jiaying Pang with Britain's Caitlin McClatchey sixth in a time of 1:57.65.