Jason Lezak kept Michael Phelps on course for eight Olympic gold medals by a fingertip on Monday when he anchored the United States to the 4x100-meter relay title in record time.
Lezak, the oldest man on the U.S. swimming team at 32, was nearly a body length behind the massive Alain Bernard of France as they made the final turn, but the American hugged the lane rope, drafting off the Frenchman and stunningly overtaking him on the very last stroke.
Watching on deck, Phelps thrust both arms toward the roof of the Water Cube, his quest to break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals having survived what will likely be its toughest test.
The Americans shattered the world record their "B'' team set the previous day in the preliminaries, finishing in 3 minute, 8.24 seconds - nearly 4 seconds below the 15-hour-old mark of 3:12.23.
"Unbelievable," said Phelps, who swam the leadoff leg.
"Jason finished that race better than we could even ask for. I was fired up. Going into that last 50, I was like, 'Aw, this is going to be a close race.' Jason's last 10 or 15 meters were incredible."
The French were second in 3:08.32 - eight-one-hundredths of a second behind. Australia took the bronze in 3:09.91.
The top five all went below the record set Sunday.
"Experience was better than talent," Frederick Bousquet of France said.
The Americans won the 4x100 freestyle relay at seven straight Olympics, but watched the Australians and South Africans take gold at the last two games.
"I've been on the last two relays where we come up short," Lezak said. "To be honest with you I got really tired of losing. I finished real strong."
Bernard was the world record holder in the 100, but he lost that mark as well. Eamon Sullivan of Australia took the individual record down by swimming the leadoff leg in 47.24 - ahead of Bernard's record of 47.50.
Two other world records fell Monday, with Kosuke Kitajima of Japan winning the 100 breaststroke in 58.91 seconds and Kirsty Coventry winning her 100 backstroke semifinal heat in 58.77.
Kitajima pounded the water defiantly and let out a scream after breaking Brendan Hansen's 2-year-old record of 59.13. Alexander Dale Oen of Norway took the silver medal and Hugues Duboscq of France took bronze.
Coventry bettered Natalie Coughlin's mark of 58.97 set at the U.S. trials last month.
They'll go head to head in Tuesday's final. Coughlin won her heat in 59.43 with a nice, comfortable swim.
"I just got to go home and take care of myself. It's going to be a tight final," Coventry said. "Natalie's just so good at racing and planning out her races, so I just expect nothing but fast, fast swimming tomorrow morning."
Phelps, who had already won one gold medal in record time, moved on to the 200 free final with the fourth-fastest time of the semifinals. The American finished in 1:46.28 to finish behind teammate Peter Vanderkaay (1:45.76) and Park Tae-hwan of South Korea (1:45.99).
Jean Basson of South Africa also went faster in the other heat, winning in 1:46.13.
"I wanted to go 1:45, and if it weren't for that messed-up finish I would have done it," Phelps said, hustling off to get ready for the big race. "I just wanted to save as much energy as possible for the relay."
Libby Trickett of Australia just missed another world record in the women's 100 butterfly, winning gold with a time of 56.73. Christine Magnuson of the United States claimed the silver (57.10) and another Aussie, Jess Schipper, took the bronze (57.25).
Rebecca Adlington of Britain rallied in the final meters to overhaul Katie Hoff of the United States and take the gold in the 400 freestyle in 4:03.22.
Hoff was second in 4:03.29, Joanne Jackson of Britain won the bronze in 4:03.52.
