Michael Phelps claimed his sixth Beijing gold and sixth world record on Friday as the United States mounted a gold rush, but the gloss of the Games was tarnished with the first drug failures.

North Korean shooter Kim Jong-Su, who had won a silver and bronze medal, and unplaced Vietnamese gymnast Do Thi Ngan Thuong had both tested positive, the IOC said.

They were the first doping failures in competition since the Games began a week ago.

In an age where superlative performances spark suspicion, Phelps was moved to say his superhuman exploits are achieved fairly.

"Anyone can say whatever they want, I know, for me, I am clean," he said after shaving 0.57sec of his own record in winning the 200m medley.

A day after drawing a golden blank, the United States staged a four-gold blitz, three in world record time in swimming and one in gymnastics, raising spirits after the traditional sporting powerhouse had struggled through the first week.

China have won 22 gold medals and the United States are second with 14, nearly half of them from Phelps as he moved within one of Mark Spitz's record seven gold at one Games.

Phelps, whose current career haul of 12 Olympic gold medals is a record in itself, is set to overtake Spitz if he wins his remaining two races the 100m butterfly and 4x100m medley relay.

Rebecca Soni, who underwent heart surgery two years ago, started the US run in the pool when she upset Australia's world champion Leisel Jones to win the 200m breaststroke gold in world record time.

Ryan Lochte followed with a world record win in the men's 200m backstroke, to claim his first individual gold medal, and 40 minutes later he was back in the pool to take the bronze medal behind Phelps in the medley.

Britta Steffen broke the US stranglehold taking the women's 100m freestyle crown, and giving Germany their eighth gold to be third on the table.

As if pre-ordained for China, which spent 40 billion dollars to stage the Games, the smog which enveloped Beijing for the first week disappeared for the opening day of track events.

In the countdown to Saturday's highly-anticipated men's 100m final, the world's three fastest men of all time - American Tyson Gay and Jamaicans Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt - cruised through the first round heats.

The sprint final is on Saturday, with men's shot putt and the women's 10,000m providing the first track and field medallists late Friday.

Russian-born Nastia Liukin, whose father Valeri won two gold medals for the Soviet Union in 1988, snapped China's stranglehold on gymnastics when she and Shawn Johnson produced a US one-two in the women's all-around final leaving Yang Yilin of China third.

The price of failure for Chinese competitors is high, and the men's football team suffered a public mauling after failing to pass the group stage.

The state-run Xinhua news agency, in a story headlined "Chinese soccer team's disgraceful exit", called their performance a "fiasco".

The United States cried foul after Cuba's 5-4 baseball victory ended with American batter Jayson Nix in hospital with a serious eye injury when an attempted bunt deflected the ball into his face.

US manager Davey Johnson accused the Cuban pitcher of throwing at Nix's head, adding: "No game of baseball is worth that as far as I'm concerned."

The packed tennis schedule moved into the semi-finals after a day of drama which saw top men's seed Roger Federer and the Williams sisters all crash out when rain-delays saw play go through until after 1:30am (1730GMT).

In the men's semi-finals Blake plays Fernando Gonzalez of Chile while Rafael Nadal, who went on court at midnight for his quarter-final, is back in the early evening against Serbian Novak Djokovic.

AFP

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