Another Golden Trio for US on Day 7

The United States claimed six more medals in the four event finals held in the morning session of Day 7 in Beijing, including the first three in World Record times.

21 year-old Rebecca Soni held off Australia's Liesel Jones for a surprise victory in the women's 200m breaststroke.

Earlier this week, Jones had claimed the gold in the 100m breaststroke with Soni coming in a surprising second. Most assumed that with the pressure of winning a gold off her back, the dominant Australian would sweep the breaststroke events. However, Soni pushed ahead on the final 50 meters to win by a full body length in a time of 2:20.22, almost 2 two seconds ahead of the silver medalist Jones.

The biggest question coming in to the men's 200m backstroke final was which American was going to finish first, and which would be stuck with second. Co-world record holders Aaron Peirsol and Ryan Lochte were the presumptive favorites and Peirsol had already claimed gold in the 100m backstroke earlier this week. However, Piersol fell the same fate as Liesel Jones, and finished second behind Lochte who set a new world record with a time of 1:53.94.

Both Lochte and Peirsol came out of the final turn tied for second behind Arcady Vyatchanin of Russia, who faded during the final lap to earn the bronze, 0.99 seconds behind Lochte, and 0.60 seconds behind silver medalist Piersol.

In the third final of the morning, Michael Phelps earned his sixth gold medal of the Beijing Games, again with a world record time of 1:54.23 in the men's 200m individual medley. He made this one look easy, holding hitting the wall first after the butterfly leg, and cruising to an easy victory, beating silver medalist Laszlo Cseh of Hungary by 2.29. Ryan Lochte finished a very close third, only 0.01 seconds behind Cseh, despite swimming this final less than a half hour after his 200m backstroke race.

Britta Steffen of Germany was the sole gold medalist in the morning not from the United States as she held off Libby Trickett of Australia in the women's 100m freestyle by a very close 0.04 seconds, setting an Olympic record of 53.12 in the process. Natalie Coughlin of the United States claimed the sixth American medal earning the bronze with a time of 53.39.

In the morning's final races,, Americans Michael Phelps and world record holder Ian Crocker qualified for the finals of the men's 100m butterfly, scheduled for Friday evening in the United States. Phelps' time was second only to Milorad Cavic of Serbia. Ian Crocker was tied with Andrew Lauerstein of Australia for the third best time. 

The finals for the men's 100m butterfly is scheduled for 10:10am (in Beijing) on Saturday morning. This is the second of four finals, immediately following the women's 200m backstroke finals featuring Americans Elizabeth Biesel and Margaret Hoelzer and top qualifier Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe.