BRONZED AUSSIE

BEIJING, CHINA, August 16: Australia could only add one more medal to their tally on the penultimate day of swimming at the National Aquatics Centre.

Andrew Lauterstein won a stunning bronze medal in the 100 metres butterfly.

Lauterstein smashed the Commonwealth record with a time of 51.12 to better the Australian record he established in the heats (51.37) and semi-finals(51.27). DAVID LYALL AOC REPORTS...

Michael Phelps won the race in 50.58 on the last stroke - just as he had done at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games - overhauling Serbian Milorad Cavic when the gold appeared gone. Cavic was an agonising 0.01 seconds behind.

The win was Phelps' seventh - equalling Mark Spitz's record set at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games for the most gold medals won by an athlete at a single Games.

Ashley Callus finished fourth and Eamon Sullivan sixth in a sizzling 50 metres freestyle final that was won by Brazilian Cesar Cielo Filho.

Filho powered down the pool, pulling away from the red hot field at the 30 metre mark to set an Olympic record time of 21.30 - a mere 0.02 seconds shy of Sullivan's world record.

Frenchman Amaury Leveaux was second in 21.45; his countryman Alain Bernard was third in 21.49, with Callus clocking a personal best of 21.62 and Sullivan swimming 21.65.

The Brazilian, who celebrated wildly on the lane rope after the race and then broke down in tears, is coached at Auburn University in the USA by former Australian record holder Brett Hawke.

Sullivan had already won silver in the 100m freestyle, a bronze as a member of Australia's 4x100m freestyle relay squad and twice lowered the world record for the 100m. He will anchor Australia's 4x100m medley relay team in the final tomorrow.

Callus is a relay gold medallist at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and a bronze medallist with Sullivan, Andrew Lauterstein and Matt Targett in the 4x100m freestyle here. It was his second personal best in 24 hours and the fourth placing after than his pre-meet ranking that was well outside finals contention.

Kylie Palmer placed sixth in a gruelling 800 metres freestyle final with a time of 8:26.39.

Battling a head cold Palmer tried hard in her first individual Olympic final but the events of the last few days caught up with the 18-year-old.

Two days ago she helped Australia to an upset victory in the 4x200m freestyle, swimming the fastest Australian leg, then clocked 8:22.81 to slice 0.12 seconds off Julie McDonald's 20-year-old national record - the oldest Australian record on the books.

Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington, who won the 400m final last Monday morning, added the 800m title and wiped the oldest world record from the history books.

The Brit clocked 8:14.10 to slice more than two seconds off the old mark of 8:16.22 established in 1989 American great Janet Evans.

After the race Palmer said she wanted to swim faster but it was not to be.

"I was happy with how things had gone so far with the relay and my Australian record the other day but I didn't swim as fast as I wanted today," Palmer said.

Despite today's effort it has been a wonderful Olympic debut for Palmer and one that she will only improve on too.

Palmer was the baby of the Australian team at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and now, a little over two years later, she is anything but.

Meagen Nay and Belinda Hocking finished seventh and eighth in a super quick 200m backstroke final.

Nay clocked 2:08.84 and Hocking a 2:10.12 in a race where Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry finally won her first gold of the meet after three straight silvers, setting a world record of 2:05.24 in the process.

The teenage Australian pair had done a remarkable job just to be in the final, neither having raced at this level before.

Nay, whose father Robbie, himself fifth as a member of Australia's 4x200m freestyle relay team at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games and who tragically lost his life in a car accident in 1992, set a Commonwealth record of 2:08.09 in the semi-finals

Australia has not won an Olympic medal in women's backstroke since Nicole Stevenson (now Livingstone) won bronze in the 200m at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

Cate Campbell and Libby Trickett are ranked second and fifth going into tomorrow's final of the 50m freestyle after the tight semi-final round.

Campbell recorded 24.42 and Trickett clocked a 24.47 behind American veteran Dara Torres' 24.27.

Campbell, 16, swam her heat alongside Torres, who at 41-years-of-age is competing in her fifth Olympics. She made her debut at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

Trickett has already won a full set of medals at this meet - gold in the 100m butterfly, silver in yesterday's 00m freestyle and bronze in the 4x100m freestyle relay.