A U.S. pool party

Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2000 | 11:25 a.m.

SUN WIRE REPORTS

SYDNEY, Australia -- It was sweet revenge for the U.S. swimmers at the Sydney Games while Team USA had another sour outing on the softball field.

Jenny Thompson today set a women's record for career swimming gold medals with seven, anchoring an American 800-meter freestyle relay that nipped Australia in 7 minutes, 57.80 seconds.

Thompson's performance came minutes after Misty Hyman shocked world-record holder Susie O'Neill -- another Aussie -- for the gold medal in the 200-meter butterfly.

The U.S. victories avenged men's losses to Australian hero Ian Thorpe and his teammates, who beat the Americans by a fingertip in the men's 400 free relay earlier in the week then blew them out in the 800 free relay.

Thompson, who has won all her golds in relays, surpassed the six swimming golds won by Kristin Otto of Germany.

After winning 112 games in a row, the U.S. softball team dropped its second straight on the diamond.

This time it was an excruciating 2-0 loss to China in 14 innings. Japan beat the United States 2-1 in 11 innings Tuesday.

Zhang Chunfang lined the ball off U.S. pitcher Michelle Smith's leg in the 14th to score one run. Then second baseman Jennifer McFalls threw wide of first, allowing another run to score.

There also was a huge upset in baseball. The Netherlands stunned Cuba 4-2, the first Olympic defeat ever for a Cuban team.

On the local front, UNLV swimmer Lorena Diaconescu narrowly missed out a bronze medal as her Romaninan 4x200 relay team finished fourth.