ATHENS, Greece - American Aaron Peirsol reclaimed the gold medal in the Olympic 200-meter backstroke after initially being disqualified Thursday night over what an official deemed an illegal turn.

The United States filed a protest and the disqualification was overturned on appeal by FINA, the sport's governing body, about 30 minutes after the race - just before the medal ceremony was held. He then had to survive another protest by Austria and Great Britain.

Peirsol, the world record-holder and current world champion, led most of the race and easily beat the field, touching in 1 minute, 54.95 seconds. He was more than two seconds ahead of Austria's Marcus Rogan.

The silver went to Rogan in 1:57.35, while Romania's Razvan Florea settled for bronze (1:57.56). Britain's James Goddard, who initially had a bronze, dropped back to fourth in 1:57.76.

American Michael Phelps won his fourth gold of the Olympics in the 200-meter individual medley, leading the entire race. Phelps set an Olympic-record of 1:57.14, lowering his own mark of 1:58.52 set in the semifinals one night earlier.

Ryan Lochte of Daytona Beach, Fla., earned silver in 1:58.78. George Bovell of Trinidad took bronze in 1:58.80.

Amanda Beard captured the first individual gold of her career, in the 200-meter breaststroke. Only a victory by Australian Jodie Henry in the women's 100-meter freestyle prevented an American sweep.

Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands won silver in 0:54.16 and American Natalie Coughlin got the bronze in 0:54.40.

Canada 1, Italy 0Lauren Bay pitched a shutout and Alison Bradley hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning for Canada (3-4), which now needs China (3-3) to beat Japan in Friday's preliminary round finale to make the semifinals. Canada beat Japan (3-3) in round-robin play and would win the tiebreaker for the No. 4 spot.Italy (1-6) got its only win over China.

Russia 94, Japan 71Russia clinched a berth in quarterfinals by dominating much-smaller Japan inside.Elena Baranova scored 22 points and Ilona Korstin added 20 for Russia (3-1), which joined Australia in advancing from their group. Russia, the 2003 European champions, finished second at the 2002 World Championships.Russia had a 57-22 advantage on the boards with 7-foot Maria Stepanova grabbing 12 and the 6-4 Baranova getting 11 to outrebound Japan by themselves.Noriko Hamaguchi had 14 points for Japan (1-3), which has no player taller than 6 feet on its roster. Japan can still qualify for the quarterfinals with a victory over Greece on Sunday in the final preliminary round game.

Marco Galiazzo won Italy's first archery gold medal while the South Korean men kept up an unsuccessful Olympic streak.Galiazzo beat Hiroshi Yamamoto of Japan 111-109 for the gold. Tim Cuddihy of Australia, who beat two South Koreans along the way, took bronze.The 21-year-old Galiazzo, who placed 49th at last year's world championships, became Italy's first-ever Olympic champion in the sport.The South Korean men are still looking for their first Olympic individual medal. Their women have taken every Olympic gold medal since 1984.Cuddihy and Park Kyung-mo of South Korea set Olympic records earlier. Park set an 18-arrow record of 173 in the round of 16. Cuddihy set a 36-arrow mark of 340 over three rounds on his way to the bronze.He beat the record of 339 set only hours before by Szu Yuan Chen of Taiwan.

China won the first two gold medals in badminton, with world champion Zhang Ning beating Indonesian-born Dutchwoman Mia Audina 8-11, 11-6, 11-7 in singles.China also flaunted its dominance of the sport in mixed doubles, with Zhang Jun and Gao Ling edging the British pair of Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms 15-1, 12-15, 15-12 in a thrilling final.The bronze medal in the mixed doubles went to Jens Eriksen and Mette Schjoldager, who beat compatriots Jonas Rasmussen and Rikke Olsen 15-5, 15-5. China also won bronze in the singles, with Zhou Mi defeating fellow Chinese Gong Ruina 11-2, 8-11, 11-6.

Brazilians Emanuel and Ricardo routed Americans Dax Holdren and Stein Metzger 21-17, 21-10 to finish a perfect run through pool play.Despite the loss, the 12th-seeded Americans advanced to the medal round.Later, top-ranked American women Misty May and Kerri Walsh got their toughest test of the tournament but stayed unbeaten with a 21-17, 21-17 win over 10th-seeded Czechs Eva Celbova and Sona Novakova.The Americans and second-seeded Brazilians Shelda and Adriana are the only duos - men's or women's - who have not dropped a set.The Brazilian women, silver medalists in 2000, capped their run through pool play with a 21-14, 21-19 win over Cubans Fernandez Grasset and Larrea Peraza.