Team South Africa's swimming squad created the headlines on the first day of competition at the Beijing Olympics.
Between the seven individual swimmers in action at the Water Cube, they amassed an African record and four SA records.
Cameron van der Burgh became the first African to crack the minute barrier in the 100m breaststroke, taking third in his heat in 59.96 seconds and ranking him fifth for progression to Sunday's semis. Norway's Dale Oen set a new Olympic record to top the rankings with a time of 59.41 seconds.
"As the competition goes into the semis and finals, there's a little bit more nerves and excitement, and if I can improve the timing of my turn I know I can go faster," said Van der Burgh whose performance will be an additional boost for Friday's 4 x 100 medley relay squad.
It took less than ten minutes for Mandy Loots to borrow then lose the SA 100m butterfly record. Loots took 58.64 seconds to finish fourth in her heat before Lize-Mari Retief lowered the mark by another 0.41 seconds to 58.20.
Retief's time secured her the final qualifying berth, while Loots missed the cut by 0.12 seconds.
"It was nice having the SA record for a little time - now Lize has taken it back - so I think it's nice for both of us," said Loots.
"It's really happy to be able to swim again - I wasn't seeded for that. I went off too fast, perhaps with better pacing I can go faster," said Retief who will compete in Sunday mornings semifinals.
Riaan Schoeman set the first of the records in the 400m individual medley, finishing fourth in his heat in a time of 4:14.09.
"I would like to have gone faster - the village is enormous... getting around and all the travelling seems to have taken it out of my legs," said Schoeman who failed to progress to the semis by four slots.
Michael Phelps kicked off his attempt to win eight gold medals, to surpass Mark Spitz's seven gold haul in 1972, with a new Olympic record of 4:07.82 in the final medley heat.
Although not qualifying in the women's medley, Kathryn Meaklin added the fourth national record to the tally finishing fifth in her heat, tenth overall in 4:37.11, which took 3.87 seconds off the previous mark.
"I really think we've got the beating of the Australians," said rower Shaun Keeling who, together with Ramon di Clemente, commenced their defence of the men's pair bronze from Athens.
The duo lead over the first 500m before being caught by the Australians who they shadowed for the final kilometre. "Obviously we always want to win, but we're very happy with second to qualify," continued Keeling. "I wanted to go to the opening ceremony but racing comes first, this makes it (missing the opening) worthwhile."
The South Africans covered the 1500m in six minutes 45.26 seconds, the third fastest time of the day behind New Zealand (6:41.65) and Australia (6:41.15), with the German team finishing third in their heat, 7.45 seconds adrift.
Earlier in the day, Rika Geyser finished third in her single sculls heat in 8:20:26, behind Bulgaria's Rumyana Neykova and Cuba's Maira Gonalez.
"It was a bit tough, the heat got to me," said Geyser who attended last night's opening ceremony which may have affected her race.
The Tshwane-based, 29 year old goes forward to Monday's quarterfinals with the second slowest qualifying time and faces a strong field including Belarusian Ekaterina Karsten and New Zealand's Emma Twigg, making her progression a challenge.
A six-man sprint saw Spanish cyclist Samuel Sanchez snatch gold in the 245,5km men's road race from central Beijing to the Great Wall of China Saturday.
In stifling conditions, Sanchez took gold in 6hrs 23min 49sec with Italy's Davide Rebellin taking silver and Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland coming from nowhere in the final kilometre to take the bronze.
John-Lee Augustyn, who turns 22 Sunday, was the leading South African in 27th place 2min 32sec down.
"I could feel myself struggling on the last lap," said Augustyn, "and when the break went I tried to stay with them but I began to cramp all over." David George, who worked with Augustyn for much of the race was 15min 53sec adrift in 80th.
The third South African, Robbie Hunter, pulled out after the flat point-to-point section having done all the chasing for his team-mates.
Fencers Adele du Plooy, Joyti Chetty and Elivra Woods competing in the individual sabre were eliminated in their first rounds with Du Plooy providing the best performance going down 7-15 to Ukraine's Halyn Pundyk.
The trio now face the daunting task of taking on the US team in Thursday's team competition.
Prime interest on Sunday is in the pool where apart from the progression of Van der Burgh and Retief, the 4 x 100m freestyle squad will commence their defence of the world record breaking gold medal from Athens.
They are ranked fifth on qualifying times but have the advantage of a second heat draw so will know what is required to make the final. The exact make up of the quartet will only be released on Sunday but rumoured swim off times suggest the Athens quartet of Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Ryk Neethling and Darian Townsend could be back in the water again.
Others at work in the pool Sunday will be: Darian Townsend and Jean Basson in the 200m freestyle.
Cyclists Cherise Taylor and Marissa van der Merwe will gain experience of top flight competition when they get their crack at the challenging 245.4km road course Sunday morning, while at night the women's hockey squad commence their campaign against the Netherlands whom they have yet to beat in a major competition..
Others in action Sunday include: Michelle Edwards and Chantal Botts in badminton doubles, while Kerry-lee Harrington competes in the singles having been given a bye from Saturday's first round.
Alex White and Kirsten McCann compete in the lightweight double scull and Commonwealth gold winning shottist Diane Swanton competes in the trap. The men's epee trio compete in the individual competition, but face higher ranked competition and will do well to progress. - Sapa