Michael Phelps stared down history on Saturday, matching Mark Spitz's magical seven gold medals at one Olympics with a defiant victory in the men's 100m butterfly.

Phelps, seventh at the turn, snatched victory by one-hundredth of a second over Serbia's Milorad Cavic, pounding the water in triumph and screaming with delight when he realized the enormity of his achievement.

"I feel a little bit of everything — relief, excitement, everything," Phelps said. "I had to take my goggles off to make sure the '1' was next to my name."

The 23-year-old American phenomenon, who had appeared invincible as he set six world records in winning his first six golds at the Water Cube, displayed the sheer force of his will as he made up a deficit of more than half a second in the final lap to win in 50.58sec with Cavic second in 50.59.

"One-hundredth is the smallest margin of victory in our sport and it's pretty cool, that's all I can say," Phelps said.

Serbians make a stink

Serbian officials thought it was too close.

They protested that Cavic should have shared the gold, but swimming's ruling body FINA reviewed the race and decreed that the one-two finish stood.

"Under our rules, we listened to the protest," said race referee Ben Ekumbo. "I looked at the video footage from Omega and it was very clear the Serbian swimmer had second behind Michael Phelps, one was stroking (Phelps) the other was gliding (Cavic)."

"I guess the timing system says it all," said Phelps, whose own gold was not jeopardized by the protest.

Cavic had challenged Phelps even before the race began.

As the American took up his familiar pre-race stance alongside his block, facing the side of the pool, Cavic stood by his own block and faced him.

The two stood stock still and staring until the starter called them onto the blocks, but at the finish it was Cavic who blinked, missing out on gold in 50.59.

"When I saw the 50.58 and the 50.59 and I saw the '1' next to my name, that's when I sort of let my roar out," Phelps said.

Record in sight

As Cavic reached for the wall, Phelps gambled with one more short stroke.

"I actually thought when I did take that half stroke, I thought I had lost the race right there, but I guess that was the difference in the end," he said.

Australian Andrew Lauterstein was third in 51.12.

It was the only one of Phelps's five individual events in Beijing in which he both started and finished without the world record, which still belongs to fourth-placed compatriot Ian Crocker.

With his seventh gold medal, Phelps matched the record that US swimmer Spitz established with seven victories at the Munich Olympics in 1972, and will have a chance to break the mark when he swims the 4x100m medley relay on Sunday.

"I think the biggest thing is when someone says you can't do something," Phelps said of his determination in pursuing a record once thought unassailable.

"It shows that anything is possible when you put your mind to it."

Phelps has won gold at Beijing in the 100m and 200m butterfly, 200m and 400m individual medley, 200m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay and 4x200m freestyle relay.

Phelps, who won six gold medals in Athens, had already moved ahead of Spitz on one score here. He surpassed the US swimming icon, along with Games greats Carl Lewis, Paavo Nurmi and Larysa Latynina, who were tied for the Olympic record of nine career gold medals.

With his seventh Beijing triumph Phelps took his career total of Games gold to 13. Britain's Rebecca Adlington broke the oldest swimming world record on the books, winning the women's 800m freestyle in 8:14.10.

She erased the 19-year-old record of 8:16.22 set by Janet Evans on August 20, 1989 in Tokyo.

Adlington, who snatched the 400m free gold at the final touch, crushed her opposition with over six seconds to spare.

"If anyone would have said before the Games that I'd win two golds and break the world record, I'd have laughed in their face," said Adlington.

Italian Alessia Filippi took the silver 8:20.23 and Lote Friis of Denmark claimed the bronze in 8:23.03.

Gold for Coventry

Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe finally added gold to the three silvers she had won so far in Beijing, setting a world record to retain her 200m backstroke title.

Coventry clocked 2:05.24, bettering the world mark set by Margaret Hoelzer at the US trials in July. Hoelzer took silver in 2:06.23 and Japan's Reiko Nakamura earned the bronze in 2:07.13.

Cesar Cielo Filho gave Brazil it's first Olympic swimming gold with a victory the men's 50m freestyle gold in 21.30sec.

Amaury Leveaux was second in 21.45 with fellow Frenchman, and 100m free gold medallist, Alain Bernard third in 21.49.

"It was my best race ever," said Cielo, who shared bronze with Jason Lezak in the 100m free and broke down in tears on the podium as the Brazilian anthem played.

World record-holder Eamon Sullivan of Australia finished a disappointing sixth.

AFP