De Bruijn shines again

Inge de Bruijn continues to dominate with another gold

Dutch swimmer Inge de Bruijn has cruised to another gold medal in the Olympic pool as she dominated the women's 100 metre freestyle from start to finish.

De Bruijn beat off the attentions of Sweden's Therese Alshammar by a full half second, while the two Americans Dara Torres and Jenny Thompson could not be separated to share the bronze.

De Bruijn, who broke seven world records and equalled another in a nine-week spree earlier this year, broke her own 100metres butterfly mark to win her first Olympic gold on Sunday.

She had lowered the 100 freestyle world mark on Wednesday when clocking 53.77 in the semi-finals.

De Bruijn's time in Thursday's final was an impressive 53.83.

Jubilant Agnes Kovacs

Breaststroke final

Meanwhile, Agnes Kovacs took gold in the women's 200m breaststroke final.

Kovacs won the final by the smallest of margins, beating the American Kristy Kowal.

The American turned first but the Hungarian remained strong to claim the top prize.

Kovacs clocked 2:24:35, with Kristy Kowal on 2:24:56 and Amanda Beard 2:25.35.

US swimmer Amanda Beard took bronze after finishing almost a second slower.

China's Qi Hui was fourth and Russian Olga Bakaldina was fifth.

British disappointment

There was disappointment for Britain in the 200m backstroke as Joanna Fargus and Helen Don-Duncan both failed to progress.

Fargus, who had been seventh fastest in the heats, went slower in the semi-final as her time of 2:13.57 left her sixth in the race.

British record holder Don-Duncan was over three seconds off her best as she finished eighth in her semi in 2:14.97.

French swimmer Roxana Maracineanu and Romanian Diana Mocanu won their respective semi-finals with times of 2:11.93 and 2:09.64 respectively.

Other swimmers to progress to the final are Japan's Tomoko Hagiwara and Miki Nakao, Nina Zhivanevskaya (Spain), Antje Buschschulte (Germany), Amanda Adkins (U.S.) and Kelly Stefanyshyn (Canada).