U.S.'s 800 relay shades Aussies

Klete Keller dueled Ian Thorpe to the finish.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Michael Phelps eventually was reduced to being a cheerleader. This one was all about Klete Keller.
Keller just beat Ian Thorpe to the wall in the second-closest 800-meter freestyle relay finish in Olympic history, giving the United States a gold medal over arch-rival Australia by 13 hundredths of a second Tuesday night.
"The U.S. and Australia bring the best out of each other," Keller said. "I love racing them."
Also Tuesday, Ukraine's Yana Klochkova completed a sweep of the individual medleys, winning gold in the 200 over Amanda Beard of Irvine, Calif., while Camelia Potec of Romania won the 200 free.
The laps
Phelps led off the 800 relay against Aussie Grant Hackett in front of 10,000 fans whose cheering reached a crescendo as Keller and Thorpe dueled next to each other through the final 200 meters.
The Thorpedo swam even faster than he did in winning the 200 free Monday, but it wasn't enough: The Americans won in a time of 7 minutes, 7.33 seconds. The Australians earned silver in 7:07.46, while the Italians were more than four seconds back for bronze.
"I'm sure everyone in the stands loved it," said Peter Vanderkaay, who retained the Americans' lead before turning it over to Keller. "Klete really swam smart and tough."
Phelps earned his third gold medal of the Athens Games, having won the 200 butterfly about an hour earlier to go with his victory in the 400 individual medley Saturday.
The 19-year-old from Baltimore built about a one-second lead before climbing out and exhorting his teammates on to victory.
"We were just trying to cheer as loudly as possible," he said. "We've been wanting to win this relay for so long."
Picking it up
Ryan Lochte stretched the advantage a bit more against Michael Klim, and Vanderkaay -- with the best 200 of his life -- handed off a 1.48-second cushion to Nicholas Sprenger.
The Aussies saved Thorpe for the anchor leg, and he closed quickly on Keller. He knocked off nearly a second through the first 100, and turned for home virtually tied with the American.
But Keller had more in reserve than Thorpe, who swam the 100 freestyle semifinals earlier in the evening. And the lanky, laconic 22-year-old from Phoenix wasn't intimidated.
"We all train to race against the best in the world every day, and we learn not to let that psyche you out," he said.
Phelps, Lochte and Vanderkaay jumped up and down on the deck as Keller churned furiously. When his hand hit the wall barely ahead of Thorpe's, Phelps threw up his arms and screamed "Yeaaahh!"
Chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" rang out around the stadium.
"It was a fantastic spectacle of swimming," Klim said. "Klete swam so well. We can't expect for Ian to be winning relays for us all of the time."
Crediting teammate
Phelps helped the Americans avenge a loss to Australia four years ago in Sydney, when Keller also anchored their silver medal team.
"I knew Klete would come through," Phelps said. "His swim was the reason why we won that relay. He held off the fastest 200 freestyler in history."
Thorpe's 200 split of 1:44.18 was about a half-second faster than his gold-medal time in the 200 free a night earlier, when he took on Phelps and Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands in a stellar matchup.
"I tried to put my head down," Thorpe said. "It was a good last 50 for me and a great one for Klete. Unfortunately, I didn't quite get there."
In the 200 butterfly, Phelps held off Takashi Yamamoto to win in an Olympic-record 1:54.01. The Japanese took silver (1:54.56), while Britain's Stephen Parry won bronze (1:55.22).
Halfway through the eight-day swimming competition, Phelps has three gold and two bronze medals. His third-place finishes in the 400 free relay and 200 free ended his bid to break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Games.
Three-gold Thorpe
Thorpe is doing well, too. He has a silver to go with three gold medals.
In the women's 200 IM, Klochkova defended the title she won in Sydney with a time of 2:11.14. Beard made her signature move on the breaststroke leg and took silver in 2:11.70. Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe earned bronze, her second medal of the games.
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