18 August 2004	Wednesday	01 Rajab 1425

ATHENS, Aug 17: Michael Phelps won his second Olympic gold for the United States on Tuesday, setting a new Games record in the 200-metres butterfly. The American teenager powered to victory in an Olympic record time of one minute 54.04 seconds, but missed his own 2003 world record of 1:53.93.

Takashi Yamamoto of Japan took the silver and Stephen Parry won the bronze to give Britain its first swimming medal since Atlanta in 1996. Phelps won his first gold in the 400 individual medley on Saturday and also has two bronze medals from Athens.

Camelia Potec of Romania clinched the Olympic women's 200 metres freestyle title with a late surge down the final length of the pool as German world record holder Franziska van Almsick saw her dream of Olympic gold dissolve.

There was disappointing news for the U.S. athletics team which will start without world 100 metres champion Torri Edwards later this week, after her appeal against a two-year drugs ban was dismissed on Tuesday

A source told Reuters the Court of Arbitration for Sport decided to uphold the ban imposed by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency after Edwards tested positive for the stimulant nikethamide in Martinique last April.

The other 10,500 athletes from 202 countries at the Games were probably too busy with last-minute training or celebrating winning medals to care much about doping stories.

China led the Olympic medal race going into the fourth day of competition with 10 golds and prospects of more in table tennis, badminton, weightlifting and gymnastics. The hosts of the next Olympics in Beijing in 2008, China are already halfway to their stated goal of 20 gold medals after only three of the 16 days of competition.

With luck, they could match their 28-gold haul at the Sydney Olympics. Greek fans went crazy when their new judo star, Ilias Iliadis, took the host nation's second gold on Tuesday, aided by his father Nikos yelling instructions. -Reuters

MEDALS TABLE

ATHENS: Medals table at 1800 GMT on day 4 of competition at the Olympics on Tuesday:

                                      G          S        B         T 



1.       China                        10         4        2         16 



2.       Australia                    6          3        5         14 



3.       Japan                        6          2        1          9 



4.       U.S.                         5          6        5          16 



5.       Ukraine                      3          1        1          5 



6.       Russia                       2          5        3          10 



7.       Italy                        2          3        2          7 



8.       France                       2          2        4          8 



9.       Greece                       2          0        1          3 



9.       Turkey                       2          0        1          3 



11.      Germany                      1          2        1          4 



12.      South Korea                  1          1        2          4 



13.      Hungary                      1          1        1          3 



14.      Thailand                     1          0        2          3 



15.      Romania                      1          0        1          2 



16=      South Africa                 1          0        0          1 



16=      UAE                          1          0        0          1 



18.      Netherlands                  0          2        3          5 



19.      North Korea                  0          2        1          3 



20=      Austria                      0          2        0          2 



20=      Poland                       0          2        0          2 



22=      Britain                      0          1        1          2 



22=      Slovakia                     0          1        1          2 



22=      Zimbabwe                     0          1        1          2 



25=      Spain                        0          1        0          1 



25=      Georgia                      0          1        0          1 



25=      Indonesia                    0          1        0          1 



25=      India                        0          1        0          1 



25=      Portugal                     0          1        0          1 



25=      Serbia & Montenegro          0          1        0          1 



31.       Cuba                        0          0        4          4 



32=       Belgium                     0          0        2          2 



32=       Brazil                      0          0        2          2 



32=       Bulgaria                    0          0        2          2 



35=       Argentina                   0          0        1          1 



35=       Canada                      0          0        1          1 



35=       Colombia                    0          0        1          1 



35=       Czech Rep                   0          0         1         1 



35=       Mongolia                    0          0         1         1 



35=       Slovenia                    0          0         1         1