Help from teammate earns Phelps gold

BEIJING (AP)— If Michael Phelps indeed wins seven (or eight) gold medals and gets his $1 million bonus from Speedo, he'll need to spend a chunk on his buddy Jason Lezak.

Lezak dove in for the last lap of the 400-meter freestyle relay second to world-record holder Alain Bernard of France.

He was still trailing with about 20 meters to go, but somehow zoomed to the wall first — 0.08 ahead of Bernard and making Phelps 2-for-2 in his pursuit of Mark Spitz's record medal haul.

Phelps threw his arms up and began hollering with the joy of a lottery winner.

He sort of is, considering the odds the Americans faced, from Phelps finishing his leadoff lap in second place to Lezak trailing Bernard after the final turn and considering the history — and big bucks — on the line.

The Americans finished in 3:08.24, lowering by 3.99 seconds the world record set the night before by their qualifying crew.

Katie Hoff knows exactly how bummed the French are.

She built a big lead in the 400 freestyle, but touched 0.07 after Britain's Rebecca Adlington.

After two of her five individual races, Hoff has a silver and a bronze — the amount she expected, but not necessarily the right color.

With Christine Magnuson taking silver in the 100-meter butterfly, the United States regained the lead and some breathing room over China in the overall medals race.

Tied at eight when Day 3 began Monday morning in Beijing, the U.S. tally is up to 11. China is still leading in golds, 6-3.

The other big morning news from China — besides clearer skies, bringing no rain and less smog — was that Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno was kicked out after testing positive for EPO.

She is the first athlete to fail a drug test during the official Olympic doping control period.