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Day-4 Roundup: Dutchman Hoogenband Breaks Second World Record
Before the hosts took the men's 4x200m freestyle relay in world record, it was the Dutch wonder boy Van den Hoogenband who started the night off with an unbelievable swim, breaking his second world record in the 100m freestyle semifinals Tuesday evening.
Six world records were outdated from the swimming pool, the cycling track and weighlifting platform on Tuesday, the fourth-day competitions of the Millennium Olympic Games.
Van den Hoogenband, who set the 200m freestyle world record of 1:45.35 on Sunday, clocked 47.84 seconds, erasing Australian Michael Klim's mark of 48.18 set up in the lead-off leg of Australia's winning 400m freestyle relay on Saturday.
"Breaking the 48 seconds, making history, I'm so happy," Van den Hoogenband said. "I was feeling very tired. I only got six hours of sleep last night. Hopefully, I will get more sleep tonight and beat 48 seconds again."
In the day's last swimming final, Ian Thorpe paced the hosts to a large lead as they broke the world record to win the 4x200m freestyle relay.
The Australian quartet of Thorpe, Michael Klim, Todd Pearson and William Kirby won in one minute 7.05 seconds, beating their own world mark of 7:08.79 set in August 1999.
The U.S. foursome of Scott Goldblatt, Josh Davis, Jamie Rauch and Klete Keller finished second in 7:12.64, with the Netherlands in third in 7:12.70.
Tom Malchow won the United States' sixth swimming gold from the men's 200m butterfly, beating his own Olympic record for the third time.
And in the women's 200m individual medley, Yana Klochkova of Ukraine who took her first gold in the 400m IM earlier, won her second gold of the Games by timing in an Olympic record of 2:10.68, breaking the 8-year-old mark of 2:11.65 held by Chinese Lin Li.
Ukrainian and German cyclists also took the limelight by breaking the men's team pursuit world record twice. After the Ukrainians timed in a new mark of 4:00.830 in the semifinals, the Germans eventually triumphed in 3:59.710 in the finals for a new world record.
The strongwomen from China and Hungary broke three world records in the two finals as Chinese Chen Xiaomin snatched up a new mark of 112.5kgs and lifted a combined total of 242.5 kgs in the 63kg class, while Erzsebet Markus of Hungary set her snatch world record of 112.5 kgs in the 69kg category.
In the archery competitions, South Korea Made a Clean Sweep in the women's individual finals as Yun Mi-Jin, Kim Nam-Soon and Kim Soo-Nyung eliminated all their rivals along their way upon the podium.
World athletics governing body IAAF announced two positive drug tests for Kenya's Simon Kemboi and Dupe Osilen of Nigeria, who will be expelled from the Olympic Games for positive tests of nandrolone.
The Romanian women gymnasts took the last title of the day, by topping both Russia and China for the team title, while the United States finished in a distant fourth place.
As of Tuesday, the United States still held its top place in the gold tally with seven golds, six silvers and five bronzes.
Both Australia and China levelled in the gold tally with six apiece, but the hosts were ranked second as they boasted of five silvers and six bronzes against China's two silvers and seven bronzes.
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