Olympic roundup: Phelps advances in 200 medley relay

Swimming: Michael Phelps finished second in something earlier today, but it was merely in qualifying for Friday’s 200 medley finals.

France’s Alain Bernard moved back atop the 100-meter freestyle list, Liu Zige broke the 200-meter butterfly mark in winning China’s first swimming medal of these games and Stephanie Rice and Australia smashed the standard by nearly 6 seconds in the 800-meter freestyle relay.

Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima set an Olympics record in winning the 200-meter breaststroke, but he also got into the record books by becoming the first swimmer to sweep the two breaststroke events at consecutive Olympics.

American Jason Lezak, the anchor-leg star of Phelps’ dramatic 400 free relay gold, added a bronze to his collection in the 100 free. Katie Hoff, Natalie Coughlin and their U.S. teammates took bronze in the 800 free relay.

Boxing: Chinese light flyweight Zou Shiming scoerd an 11-2 victory over Eduard Bermudez of Venezuela. American Deontay Wilder won his first-round match in heavyweight boxing competition with a 10-4 decision over Abdeoaziz Touiobini of Algeria.

Baseball: China lost its Olympic baseball debut to Canada,

Diving: The Chinese made it 4-for-4 when Wang Feng and Qin Kai won the 3-meter springboard. Americans Chris Colwill and Jevon Tarantino finished fourth.

Cycling: Kristin Armstrong became the second American female cyclist to win an Olympic gold, beating Britain’s Emma Pooley in the road time trial. Levi Leipheimer won the bronze in the men’s time trial.

Rowing: Rowing finalists were decided in five categories. In women’s single sculls, American Michelle Guerette advanced to Saturday’s final, while American twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss placed second in their semifinal to move on to the men’s pairs final.

Sailing: Ben Ainslie of Britain gained a 6-point overall lead on American challenger Zach Railey in the Finn class.

American favorite Anna Tunnicliffe stayed at the top of the Laser Radial class after six races, with a sixth-place finish, while teammate Andrew Campbell took his first win in the men’s Laser class, and the U.S. boat beat Britain in the three-woman Yngling class.

Wrestling: Eighteen-year-old Jake Deitchler, the youngest U.S. Olympic wrestler in 32 years, dropped his opening-round match, then lost again in the repechage round of the Greco-Roman 66-kilogram competition to exit the Olympics with an 0-2 record.

Manuchar Kvirkelia gave Georgia its first Olympic wrestling gold medal by winning the Greco-Roman 74-kilogram weight class, and Steeve Guenot won France’s first gold medal in 84 years by taking the Greco-Roman 66-kilogram weight.

Judo: Ronda Rousey won the bronze in women’s 70-kilogram judo, the first medal for the U.S. since the event made the official Olympic roster in 1992.

Irakli Tsirekidze of Georgia won the gold medal in men’s 90-kilogram judo, and Masae Ueno of Japan won the women’s 70-kilogram judo.

Water Polo: The U.S. played to a 9-9 tie with Italy after Elisa Casanova scored a power-play goal with 22 seconds left for the Italians.

Women’s Basketball: Latvia rallied to beat Brazil 79-78, Russia held off Belarus 71-65, China routed New Zealand 80-63, Australia topped South Korea 90-62, and Spain beat the Czech Republic 74-55.

Table Tennis: The Chinese dominated the openings of Olympic team table tennis matches, as the women’s squad beat Croatia 3-0 in the best-of-five format made up of four singles and a doubles.

Shooting: Chen Ying won the gold in the women’s 25-meter pistol to give China its sixth shooting medal.

Archery: Lee Chang-hwan of South Korea set an Olympic record in his second-round archery win, scoring 117 of a possible 120 points to beat Yusuf Goktug Ergin of Turkey.

Women’s Volleyball: The U.S. women’s volleyball team scored a 3-1 victory over Venezuela to improve to 2-1 in preliminary pool play.

Weightlifting: Liu Chunhong broke three world records in the women’s 69-kilogram division, defending her Olympic title to win China’s sixth gold medal in the weightlifting competition.

Sa Jae-hyouk of South Korea won the men’s 77-kg division, finally stopping China, which had won all six of the previous weight categories in which it had participated.

Beach volleyball: Americans Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers advanced to the beach volleyball medal round with a straight-sets victory over Argentina.

Fencing: Benjamin Kleibrink of Germany won the gold medal in men’s foil fencing with a convincing 15-9 victory over Japan’s Yuki Ota.

Canoe: In men’s canoe double, brothers Peter and Pavol Hochschorner of Slovakia had the best combined time after two heats.

Handball: Ramona Maier scored 11 goals to lead Romania to a 34-26 victory over France in a matchup of unbeaten squads in women’s handball. Norway defeated Kazakhstan 35-19 in the highest point total of the tournament.

Field Hockey: Eli Matheson scored three goals to lead Australia over South Africa 10-0 in field hockey. In other games, Pakistan beat Canada 3-1, Germany and Belgium tied at 1, South Korea beat China 5-2, Spain beat New Zealand 1-0, and the Netherlands edged Britain 1-0.

Equestrian: Heike Kemmer scored 72.250 percent on Bonaparte to give Germany a commanding lead in grand prix dressage, while the Dutch and American teams appeared locked in a battle for the silver. The last time Germany failed to win team gold in dressage was in 1980, when the country joined the Moscow Olympics boycott.