BEIJING (Reuters): Michael Phelps scorched to his sixth gold and his sixth world record at the Beijing Olympics Friday in a great day for the United States in the pool and in women's gymnastics.
The 23-year-old now has 12 career Olympic golds, three more than anyone else. Like Spitz in 1972, all of his golds at these Games have come in world record times.
Phelps is closing in on Mark Spitz's record of seven golds in a Games.
He could equal Spitz in the 100 butterfly final Saturday and could break the record in the 4x100 medley relay final Sunday.
Crowds poured into the Bird's Nest stadium on the first day of blue skies for the start of track and field events, with the big names coasting through their heats in the men's 100 meters.
Meanwhile, Surprise package Akhil Kumar celebrated India's Independence Day by moving a win away from giving his country its first Olympic boxing medal on Friday.
After outboxing 2005 world silver medallist Ali Hallab of France in the first round, Kumar sent home Russia's world champion Sergey Vodopyanov, who was the favourite in the bantamweight class.
The quest for dominance in the medals table is proving a fascinating contest between the United States and China, which came second in Athens in 2004. With evening competition underway on day seven, China led with 24 golds to the Americans' 14.
The Communist Party is desperate to underline the country's growing superpower status by overtaking the United States, and Chinese athletes have been playing to strengths in events like diving, gymnastics, table tennis and weightlifting.
The gap between the top two may narrow when track and field gold medals are decided, and the Americans have high hopes of a clean sweep of the medals in Friday's shot put.
Nastia Liukin restored national honor for US women gymnasts after they lost the team event to the Chinese. A dazzling floor exercise somersaulted her to victory ahead of fellow American Shawn Johnson and China's Yang Yilin.
"My dad is the reason why I became Olympic champion today," said Liukin after they became the first daughter-father act to win golds in artistic gymnastics.
Father Valery won two golds for the Soviet Union at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
China had dominated in gymnastics in the first week, winning the first three golds on offer.
Another faking controversy enveloped the opening ceremony, once again underlining the enormous lengths China is going to make the Games a successful showcase of its resurgent might.
Organizers said children dressed in ethnic costumes who carried the Chinese flag at the opening ceremony were not actually from those ethnic groups.
Many ethnic groups, particularly Tibetans, chafe under the rule of the dominant Han Chinese. The ruling Communist Party's stress on national unity is regarded by critics as code for the repression of dissent.
It is the third faking incident to hit the opening ceremony, after it emerged that computer-generated special effects had replaced "live" fireworks and an angelic little girl had lip-synched a song as the real singer was not pretty enough.
