Olympics: Singapore swimmer Tao Li 5th in 100m butterfly finals

Singapore’s Olympic swimming medal hopeful Tao Li on Monday finished in fifth place in the women’s 100—metre butterfly finals. The 18—year—old, who advanced to the finals on Sunday with an Asian record of 57.54 seconds in her heat, failed to top the record with a timing of 57.99 seconds in the finals.

Australia’s Lisbeth Trickett won the gold with a timing of 56.73 seconds, the second fastest timing in the history of the sport.

American Christine Magnuson took silver, while another Australian, Jessicah Schipper came in third.

Amanda Lim, swimmer at the Singapore Sports School, said: "There is a little disappointment, but as I said, final A for Olympics is not easy and she is ranked 5th. Although she did not meet her target of getting a bronze medal, I still think she did very well."

Michael Phelps' dream of a record eight gold medals was dramatically kept alive by teammate Jason Lezak in a 4x100m freestyle relay thriller Monday, while the first drugs scandal of the Beijing Olympics emerged.

The win gave Phelps two golds from two events, but the kudos went to US relay anchor Lezak who dived into the pool more than a body length behind France's Alain Bernard and made up the deficit with his final strokes.

At 50m to go Lezak told himself there was "no way" he could catch Bernard and save Phelps' quest.

"Then I thought: 'That's ridiculous, this is an Olympic Games. You have to go for it'," he said.

The US took an astonishing four seconds off the world record they had set in the heats the previous day, posting a new mark of 3min 08.24 sec.

"Unbelievable!" said Phelps. "Jason finished that race way better than we could have even asked for.

"The last 10 to 15 metres were incredible. I lost my voice, and I was definitely pretty emotional after that."

Such was the pace of the race, Australia's Eamon Sullivan added to Bernard's heartache when he broke the Frenchman's 100m freestyle world record as he headed Phelps in the lead-off leg.

Despite the win, the United States remained third in the medals table at the end of the third day and 34 events with three gold medals behind hosts China with nine and South Korea with four.

China won three gold Monday, including Lin Yue and Huo Liang in the men's synchronised 10m platform dive where British 14-year-old Tom Daley was a distant eighth and last with teammate Blake Aldridge.

Zhang Xiangxiang and Chen Yanqing also claimed gold in weightlifting.

Phelps, who began his unprecedented eight-gold quest on Sunday with a world record win in the 400m individual medley, raced three times Monday, qualifying fourth fastest in the 200m freestyle an hour before the relay in the morning.

The 23-year-old then returned in the evening to break the Olympic record in his 200m butterfly heat.

Beijing's unique swimming venue continued to churn out world records with five more on Monday.

In addition to the two in the men's relay, Japan's gold medal winning Kosuke Kitajima regained the 100m breaststroke world record he lost four years and Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe broke the 100m backstroke world record in her semi-final ahead of Tuesday's final.

Federica Pellegrini of Italy shaved 0.07sec off the women's 200m freestyle world record in her evening heat with the final on Wednesday.

Spanish cyclist Maria Isobel Moreno became the first athlete to fail a doping test at the Games, after returning a positive EPO sample.

"The IOC means business in stamping out doping," said IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies.

The Spanish rider has already left the Games village, departing hours after being tested on July 31.

Meanwhile, weightlifter Monika Devi, who was dropped from the India team on doping charges last Tuesday, has now been cleared but officials said it was too late to get her back into the Games.

India had reason to celebrate when Abhinav Bindra secured their first ever individual Olympic gold medal winning the men's 10m Air Rifle shooting.

The women's tennis singles suffered another withdrawal when India's Sania Mirza retired with a wrist injury, while in the men's singles fifth seed David Ferrer of Spain and Britain's sixth seed Andy Murray both crashed out in the first round.

Women's third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also made an early exit, beaten in straight sets by China's Li Na, while the men's top seeds Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic safely negotiated their way to the second round.

Meanwhile, Serena Williams was not happy about having to complete her match against Olga Govortsova on Monday after an overnight rain delay.

"I wanted to go to the market today but we have to play so many matches," she said after the 6-3, 6-1 win. "It's rough."