updated 7:11 p.m. ET Aug. 20, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - Michael Phelps matched Mark Spitz’s record of four individual gold medals in the Olympic pool Friday night with a stirring comeback in the 100-meter butterfly, then ended his competition at these Games.

Phelps nipped teammate Ian Crocker at the wall by four-hundredths of a second to win his fifth gold medal and earn the right to swim the butterfly leg in the 400-meter medley relay final Saturday.

Shortly after winning his seventh medal of these Olympics, Phelps told U.S. men’s coach Eddie Reese that he wanted to give up his spot in the medley relay to Crocker.

“We came into this meet as a team and we’re going to leave it as a team,” Phelps said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Midway through the race, Crocker led Phelps by a half-body length. Phelps was in fifth, but used his huge wingspan to rally and catch Crocker at the wall in an Olympic record of 51.25 seconds.

Because Phelps swam in the preliminaries of the medley relay, he would still get a medal if the U.S. team reaches the podium in the final.

The United States picked up another gold medal in the 50 free, where 29-year-old Gary Hall Jr. defended the title that he shared with fellow American Anthony Ervin in Sydney.

Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe won her third medal of the games, capturing gold in the 200 backstroke. In the women’s 800 freestyle, Ai Shibata of Japan won gold.Michael Phelps is done for the Olympics.

Women’s Soccer
Abby Wambach finished a four-on-zero breakaway in the 59th minute, her 17th goal in her last 18 games, to give the U.S. women’s soccer team a 2-1 quarterfinal victory over Japan.

The Americans will play Germany in the semifinals Monday. The game is a rematch of last year’s World Cup semifinal, won 3-0 by eventual champion Germany.

Kristine Lilly scored in the 43rd minute for the Americans. Emi Yamamoto scored for Japan in the 48th.

Germany came from behind to beat Nigeria 2-1 on goals by Steffi Jones and Conny Pohlers.

Cristiane and Formiga had two goals each for Brazil in its 5-0 victory over Mexico. Brazil advances to play Sweden in the other semifinal.

Track and Field
A U.S. women’s sprinting corps missing some of its biggest names started strong Friday on the first day of Olympic track competition, with three Americans — including 37-year-old Gail Devers — advancing from preliminary heats in the 100 meters.

Lauryn Williams, the 20-year-old NCAA champion from Miami, won her heat in 11.16 seconds and U.S. champion LaTasha Colander won hers in 11.31. Devers, who won the event at the 1992 and 1996 games, advanced by placing third in her heat in 11.29.

Ivan Brugnetti of Italy pulled away over the final 2,000 meters to win the gold medal in the men’s 20-kilometer walk.

Brugnetti won in a personal best 1 hour, 19 minutes, 39 seconds, finishing 5 seconds ahead of silver medalist Francisco Fernandez of Spain. Nathan Deakes of Australia won the bronze in 1:20.02.

U.S. Olympic trials triple jump champion Melvin Lister failed to make the finals in the event.

In the 10,000 meters, Kenenisa Bekele ended the reign of fellow Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie with an Olympic record time of 27:05.10.

Gebrselassie, 31 and suffering from an Achilles tendon injury, had won the last two Olympic 10,000 races. He finished fifth.

Women’s Basketball
Challenged for the first time in these Olympics, the U.S. women’s basketball team fought through foul problems and long stretches of cold shooting to clinch first place in its preliminary group with a 71-58 victory over Spain.

The United States had won its first three games in Athens by an average of 31 points, but nothing came easily against Spain. Lisa Leslie, Tina Thompson and Yolanda Griffith led a 10-2 fourth-quarter run that put the Americans firmly in control.

Leslie led the United States with 19 points and had 15 in the first half.

Russia clinched a berth in quarterfinals by dominating much-smaller Japan inside in a 94-71 victory. Elena Baranova scored 22 points and Ilona Korstin added 20 for Russia, the 2003 European champions.

Megan Compain hit a foul-line jumper with 0.4 seconds to play to lift New Zealand past china 79-77. Zhang Fan’s 3-pointer with 6.4 seconds left tied it at 77, but Compain took the ensuing inbounds pass, dribbled upcourt and hit the game-winner.

Hana Machova scored 28 points — two more than her total though the first three games — and the Czech Republic moved closer to a quarterfinal berth with a 97-75 victory over South Korea. The win puts the Czechs in the medal round, provided China doesn’t upset the unbeaten U.S. team.

Lauren Jackson had 20 points and 12 rebounds to help Australia remain unbeaten with a 77-40 victory over Greece.

Brazil kept its perfect quarterfinal streak intact with a 82-63 win over Nigeria. Despite its worst offensive showing of the tournament, Brazil advanced to the round of eight for the fourth time in as many Olympic appearances. Brazil finished seventh in its debut in 1992 and then won the silver medal four years later and the bronze in Sydney.

Softball
The United States softball team remained unbeaten in the Olympics, and for one day, Japan was perfect, too.

The Americans beat Taiwan 3-0 on Friday for their seventh straight Olympic shutout and 77th win in a row.

Cat Osterman struck out 10 in six innings, and the United States completed a perfect run through the preliminary round, setting up a U.S.-Australia showdown in the semifinals.

Later, Yukiko Ueno did Osterman one better, pitching the first perfect game in Olympic history to lead Japan past China 2-0. Ueno struck out nine.

Tanya Harding replaced Brooke Wilkins to lead Australia to a 3-2 win over Greece, and Lauren Bay threw a two-hit shutout in Canada’s 1-0 win over Italy.

Tennis
Unseeded American Mardy Fish beat No. 16 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the Olympic semifinals. Gonzalez had pulled off a third-round upset of Fish’s teammate and friend, Andy Roddick, who was in the stands rooting.

In Sunday’s final, Fish will play No. 10 Nicolas Massu, who defeated Taylor Dent 7-6 (5), 6-1 in another U.S.-Chile match.

In the women’s semifinals, Belgium’s Justine Henin-Hardenne rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the third set to beat Russia’s Anastasia Myskina 7-5, 5-7, 8-6 in a nearly three-hour match between the past two French Open champions. France’s Amelie Mauresmo advanced by defeating unseeded Australian Alicia Molik 7-6 (8), 6-3.

In the women’s doubles semifinals, No. 8 Li Ting and Sun Tian Tian of China beat No. 7 Paola Suarez and Patricia Tarabini of Argentina 6-2, 2-6, 9-7, guaranteeing China its first tennis medal at an Olympics.

Li and Sun, who beat Venus Williams and Chanda Rubin in the first round, will face No. 2 Conchita Martinez and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain for the gold Sunday. The Spaniards were 6-3, 6-0 winners over No. 5 Shinobu Asagoe and Ai Sugiyama of Japan.

Croatia’s Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic outlasted Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes of India 7-6 (5), 4-6, 16-14 to win the bronze medal in men’s doubles.

Archery
Park Sung-hyun shot a 10 on the last arrow of the women’s team competition at Panathinaiko Stadium, giving South Korea a 241-240 win over China and its fifth consecutive gold medal in the event.

Taiwan defeated France 242-228 to win the bronze.

The Koreans have won the gold at every games since the team event was added to the Olympic program in 1988 in Seoul and all 11 women’s archery golds since their first appearance in the sport in 1984.

Badminton
Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon of South Korea won the badminton gold medal in men’s doubles, beating compatriots Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sung. Indonesia’s Eng Hian and Flandy Limpele won the bronze medal.

Baseball
Claudio Liverziani hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning to put the Italians ahead, and they held on to defeat Taiwan 5-4 for their first tournament win. Peter Nyari pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to earn the win.

Yoshinobu Takahashi went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored as Japan routed Canada 9-1. Tsuyoshi Wada shut out Canada for seven innings while striking out seven and allowing just three hits. Canada’s lone run came in the ninth.

Brett Roneberg hit two solo shots and Brendan Kingman and Paul Gonzalez also homered for Australia in an 11-6 victory over Greece. Ryan Rowland Smith earned his second win of the tournament, allowing one run on two hits in 2 1/3 innings of relief.

Cuba scored five runs in the third inning and cruised to a 9-2 win over the Netherlands.

Canoe-Kayak
Pavol and Peter Hochschorner took the gold medal again in pairs canoe slalom, winning by more than 3 seconds.

The brothers from Slovakia moved smoothly through the whitewater course, showing the form that helped them win gold at the Sydney Olympics. Their time was 207.16, beating Marcus Becker and Stefan Henze of Germany by 3.82 seconds.

Jaroslav Volf and Ondrej Stepanek of the Czech Republic took bronze, just under 2 seconds behind the Germans.

Frenchman Benoit Peschier, who entered the Olympics ranked 12th in the world in single kayak slalom, used two clean, fast runs to win gold. Britain’s Campbell Walsh won silver and defending world champion Fabien Lefevre of France took bronze.

Cycling
Chris Hoy of Britain won the gold medal in cycling’s 1-kilometer time trial for men with an Olympic-record time of 1 minute, 0.711 seconds. Arnaud Tournant of France won silver at 1:00.896 seconds and Stefan Nimke of Germany took the bronze at 1:01.186.

Anna Meares of Australia won gold in the women’s 500-meter time trial, setting a world record of 33.952 seconds. Jiang Yonghua of China, whose mark was broken, won the silver in 34.112. Natallia Tsylinskaya of Belarus took bronze in 34.167.

Boxing
Vicente Escobedo became the fourth U.S. boxer eliminated from the Olympics. The lightweight lost to Rovshan Huseynov of Azerbaijan, 36-18.

Cuban fighters, meanwhile, continued to roll, winning three more fights to improve to 14-1.

Seventeen-year-old British lightweight Amir Khan, the only member of his country’s boxing team, was impressive for a second time in a 37-21 win over Dimitar Stilianov of Bulgaria.

Diving
Laura Wilkinson saved her best dive for last, and the defending Olympic gold medalist advanced past the preliminaries of 10-meter platform.

The 26-year-old Texan came through on her final dive, a backward 2½ somersault with 1½ twists. Her spins were crisp and her entry smooth, resulting in scores of 7.5 and 8.0 across the board. That was enough to move the American up to 13th with 314.19 points.

Equestrian
Germany opened a sizable lead in grand prix dressage team competition, leading with a team average of 71.813 percent. The Americans were second with 69.146 percent, while Britain was third at 69.084 percent.

The remaining two riders for each team ride Saturday to determine team medals, with the top three scores counting. Dressage is equestrian’s equivalent of gymnastics or ballet, performed without jumps in an enclosed arena.

Away from the ring, France, Britain and the United States lodged a joint appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the decision that gave Germany the gold medal in the three-day team equestrian event. A verdict is expected Saturday.

Field Hockey
Argentina clinched a spot in the women’s field hockey semifinals, while New Zealand has lost all three of its matches in pool play and hasn’t scored in the tournament.

South Korea scored once in each half to tie Australia, the defending gold medalists. Australian goalkeeper Rachel Imison saved all eight penalty corners awarded to the Koreans in the first half, then kept out another two penalty corners in the second.

South Africa earned its first and only win in pool play by upsetting Germany 3-0. Germany can still advance to the semifinals, but needs to beat South Korea in its next match and have the Netherlands beat Australia.

Japan beat Spain 2-1 in the day’s final game.

Judo
Keiji Suzuki, in the men’s 100-kilogram category, and Maki Tsukada, in women’s 78-kilogram, won judo gold medals to give Japan the Olympic title in eight of 14 events — a record haul for the country that invented the sport.

Suzuki beat Tamerlan Menov of Russia. Dennis van Der Geest of Netherlands and Indrek Pertelson of Estonia captured bronzes.

Tsukada beat Dayma Beltran of Cuba. Sun Fuming of China and Tea Donguzashvili of Russia earned the bronze medals.

Women’s Water Polo
Australia and the United States, the gold and silver medalists at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, advanced to the women’s water polo semifinals after finishing atop their brackets.

The world champion Americans, coming off an upset loss to Canada, got two goals and two assists from Brenda Villa to defeat Russia 8-4 in a match that determined the No. 1 position in Group B. The Russians placed second and the Hungarians beat Canada for third place.

Naomi Castle and Kate Gynther scored three goals apiece, and Australia rallied to tie Greece 7-7.

Beach Volleyball
Delivering their best performance of the tournament, Dax Holdren and Stein Metzger upset fourth-seeded Germans Jonas Reckermann and Markus Dieckmann 21-16, 19-21, 15-13 in their first match of the medal round.

The Americans next face Swiss pair Stefan Kobel and Patrick Heuscher, who ousted Joao Brehna and Luis Maia of Portugal 21-18, 21-19.

Earlier, Australians Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst, who won the gold medal in 2000 and the bronze in 1996, faced off with different partners — Cook with Nicole Sanderson and Pottharst with Summer Lochowicz.

Cook and Sanderson won 21-15, 21-16.

Women’s Volleyball
Yumilka Ruiz Luaces had 13 points to lead Cuba to a straight-set win over the Dominican Republic. Cuba improved to 3-1 and clinched a spot in the medal round.

China also guaranteed itself a place in the quarterfinals with a sweep of Germany, raising its record to 3-1 behind 14 points from Hao Yang.

Brazil secured a berth in the quarterfinals, staying unbeaten with a sweep of Greece. Fabiana Claudino had 14 points to lead the Brazilians.

South Korea and Italy also clinched spots in the next round by improving to 3-1. South Korea swept Japan, and Italy topped Kenya 3-0.

Weightlifting
Pawina Thongsuk of Thailand, 11 pounds lighter than most of the other competitors, won the gold in the 75-kilogram division.

Thongsuk and Natalia Zabolotnaia of Russia tied with world-record total weights of 601 pounds (272.5 kilograms), but all ties are broken on body weight and this wasn’t close. Thongsuk could have dropped less than a pound and competed Thursday at 69 kilograms, while Zabolotnaia weighed slightly less than the 75-kilogram weight limit.

Shooting
American Matt Emmons won the gold medal in the 50-meter prone rifle competition with a score of 703.3. Christian Lusch of Germany won silver with 702.2, and Sergei Martynov of Belarus took bronze.

Emmons led all shooters after the qualifying round with a score of 599, meaning only one of his 60 shots failed to hit the bull’s-eye that is 10.4 millimeters in diameter — smaller than a dime. In the final, where shots are measured in fractions of a point, Emmons shot a 104.3.

Lioubov Galkina of Russia won gold in the 50-meter rifle three-position event with an Olympic-record score of 688.4. Valentina Turisini of Italy won silver and Wang Chengyi of China took bronze.

Fencing
Russia used a patient, defensive strategy to defeat Germany 34-28 and win the gold medal in women’s team epee.

The Russian squad of Karina Aznavourian, Oxana Ermakova and Tatiana Logounova built a lead slowly by not allowing the Germans to score their second touch until more than 12 minutes into the 27-minute match.

Canada, ranked 10th in the world, upset No. 2 Hungary 38-37 in overtime in the quarterfinals. The Canadians lost to Russia 25-18 in the semifinals and the fell to France 45-37 in the bronze medal bout.

Table Tennis
China’s team of Wang Nan and Zhang Yining won the gold medal in women’s doubles table tennis, beating Lee Eun-sil and Suk Eun-mi of South Korea 11-9, 11-7, 11-6, 11-6.
Guo Yue and Niu Jianfeng of China won the bronze.

Team handball
South Korean captain Min Chul Park scored four of his team’s first five goals to lead a 34-30 victory over Iceland. Iceland finished without Sigfus Sigurdsson, who was ejected in the 55th minute after receiving his third two-minute suspension.

Spain routed Slovenia 41-28 after leading 18-15 at halftime. Spain won its fourth game of the tournament and will face world champion Croatia for the top spot in Group A. Slovenia, silver medalist at the 2004 European Championships, cannot advance.

Greece beat Brazil 26-22 behind the play of goalkeeper Dimitrios Kaffatos, who made 11 saves.

In other action, France edged Egypt 22-21, and Hungary nipped Germany 30-29.

Trampoline
Anna Dogonadze of Germany won the gold medal in women’s trampoline, scoring 39.60 points from a possible 40 to edge Karen Cockburn of Canada. Huang Shanshan of China took bronze with 39.00.

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