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From The Associated Press

Mission accomplished: Phelps captures eighth gold medal

BEIJING—Cheering from the pool deck, Michael Phelps won his record eighth gold medal of the Beijing Games to become the grandest of Olympic champions.

Jason Lezak held on to the lead Phelps gave him, anchoring the United States to a world record in the 4x100-meter medley relay against an Australian team that did its best to spoil history.

But Phelps, with a big hand from three teammates, would not be denied. He eclipsed Mark Spitz’s seven-gold performance at the 1972 Munich Games.

Even though the Americans have never lost the medley relay at the Olympics, the latest gold was hardly a breeze. When Phelps dove into the water for the butterfly — the third of four legs — the Americans were third behind Japan and Australia.

But Phelps, swimming the same distance and stroke that he used to win his seventh gold a day earlier, powered back to the front on his return lap, passing off to Lezak with the Americans in front.

Australia’s Eamon Sullivan tried to chase Lezak down and appeared to be gaining as they came to the wall. But Lezak touched in 3 minutes, 29.34 seconds — Phelps’ seventh world record and completing the Great Haul of China.

The Aussies took silver in 3:30.04, also under the old world record, while Japan held on for the bronze.

Bolt breaks 100-meter record, wins Olympic gold

BEIJING—Pure speed.

It emanated from those loping, waist-high strides 6-foot-5 Usain Bolt churned with his golden spikes — untied lace and all — to win the 100-meter Olympic gold medal and break his own world record Saturday night.

It was there for all to see, too, in the “Is that really possible?!” gap of several feet between the Jamaican and the rest of the field at the finish. And, of course, in those bright, yellow numbers on the red-and-black trackside clock blaring the official time: 9.69 seconds.

Pure joy.

It radiated from Usain Bolt’s wide eyes as he playfully nudged an opponent during the prerace stroll through the stadium hallways, and, moments later, when he clowned with one of the volunteers at the start line before handing her his black backpack.

It was there for all to see, too, in his “How good am I?!” mugging for the cameras with about 20 meters to go, already certain victory was steps away — outstretched arms with palms up, slap to his chest while taking the last of his oh-so-long 41 strides, leaning back to enjoy the moment instead of leaning forward in effort. And in the arms-swaying dance moves he showed off as reggae music flowed from the loudspeakers to help him celebrate.

“I was having fun,” Bolt said. “That’s just me — I like to have fun.”

Favre tosses TD pass in Jets debut

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—Brett Favre second-guessed himself at times during the last few weeks. He doubted whether he was doing the right thing by coming out of retirement and leaving Green Bay.

A successful debut with the New York Jets erased all that.

“I knew I had made the right decision,” Favre said, “when I was on the field tonight.”

Favre was solid in his brief Jets debut after a week of cramming to learn his new playbook. He threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Dustin Keller to cap his second series in a 13-10 loss to the Washington Redskins on Saturday night.

“It worked out better than I thought it would, not that I thought it would go badly,” he said. “It was like starting all over again. I had some feelings that I haven’t felt in 17 years, but that’s a good thing.”

Just 10 days after being acquired from Green Bay, Favre finished 5-of-6 for 48 yards and the touchdown. He said his arm felt fatigued early in the week, but looked strong in his two series. He lasted 14 plays after coach Eric Mangini said he expected Favre to take 8-12 snaps.

Torres wins a pair of silvers to cap her comeback

BEIJING—Dara Torres lost an improbable gold medal Sunday morning by one-hundredth of a second — the same margin that kept Michael Phelps on course to break Mark Spitz’s record.

The 41-year-old Torres, a five-time Olympian and the oldest American swimmer ever, settled for two more silver medals on the final day of swimming at the Water Cube.

She had three runner-up finishes in all, but was oh-so-close to a gold in the 50-meter freestyle.

Germany’s Britta Steffen nipped Torres at the wall to complete a sweep of the women’s sprint events in Beijing. The middle-aged American smiled, her head dropping back, when she saw a time of 24.07 seconds — just behind Steffen’s winning effort of 24.06. The German added to her gold in the 100 free.

Torres received her silver, then hustled back to the locker room to grab her cap and goggles. She anchored the U.S. to a second-place finish in the 400 medley relay, unable to catch Libby Trickett on a frantic sprint to the wall.

Georgia is No. 1 in preseason AP poll

NEW YORK—By the time Georgia was done demolishing Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl, it was apparent the Bulldogs were well on their way to being No. 1 — to start the 2008 college football season.

Seeking its first national championship in 28 years, Georgia is on top of The Associated Press preseason Top 25 for the first time.

The Bulldogs received 22 first-place votes and 1,528 points from a panel of 65 media members in the poll released Saturday.

“To have people believing we have one of the best teams in the nation going into this thing, it’s exciting for us,” Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said in a telephone interview with the AP.

“I don’t think anything is guaranteed, but we certainly have put ourselves in position where at least the college football world thinks we’re pretty good.”

Ohio State, coming off a second consecutive loss in the national championship game but returning 20 starters, is No. 2. The Buckeyes received 21 first-place votes and 1,506 points.

No. 3 Southern California, which plays Ohio State in Los Angeles on Sept. 13, received 12 first-place votes. No. 4 Oklahoma had four first-place votes and No. 5 Florida received six first-place votes.

Glavine out for season, hopes to pitch in 2009

ATLANTA—Braves pitcher Tom Glavine is out for the season, and his illustrious career could be over if he needs major surgery on his injured left elbow.

The 42-year-old Glavine still hopes to return next year — unless he needs elbow ligament replacement surgery.

A 300-game winner, Glavine said Saturday he will be examined by Dr. James Andrews next week in Alabama. Glavine, placed on the disabled list Friday with a torn flexor tendon in his left elbow, plans to have surgery to repair the tendon.

He said he’d give up his comeback hopes for 2009 if Andrews determines the pitcher needs the ligament replacement procedure, known as Tommy John surgery. Rehabilitation after that procedure often takes at least a year.

A two-time NL Cy Young Award winner with Atlanta, Glavine gave up seven runs in four innings against the Chicago Cubs on Thursday in his first start since June 10. He is 2-4 with a 5.54 ERA in 13 games this season, and 305-203 in his career.