BEIJING — Usain Bolt of Jamaica broke the world record by winning the 200 meters in 19.30 seconds Wednesday night, becoming the first man since Carl Lewis in 1984 to sweep the 100 and 200 gold medals at an Olympics.

Bolt is the first man ever to break the world marks in both sprints at an Olympics. Not even Lewis or Jesse Owens managed that.

Showing what he can do when he runs at full speed all the way through the finish — something he hadn’t done yet in the Beijing Games — Bolt eclipsed the old record of 19.32 seconds set by Michael Johnson in Atlanta in 1996.

Bolt was an astonishing 0.52 seconds ahead of silver medalist Churandy Martina of Netherlands Antilles.

Shawn Crawford of the United States, the defending Olympic champion, was third after teammate Wallace Spearmon was disqualified for running out his lane. The U.S. protested the ruling.

The performance marked Bolt as one of the breakthrough stars of these Summer Games, coming on the heels of his victory in the 100 Saturday night. He bettered his own world record in that race by winning in 9.69 seconds — despite slowing down over the final 20 meters to showboat.

Shawn Johnson gets gold medal in balance beam

The Associated Press

U.S. gymnast Shawn Johnson performs on the balance beam during the gymnastics apparatus finals at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2008. Johnson won the gold medal.

BEIJING — American Shawn Johnson finally got her Olympic gold medal in the last event of the women’s competition Tuesday night, the balance beam.

Johnson nailed her routine that is chock-full of difficult tricks, earning a 16.225.

The world champion, who already had a silver behind fellow American Nastia Liukin in the all-around, and a silver on floor and in the team event, edged Liukin, who finished with a gold, three silvers and a bronze.

Cheng Fei of China took the bronze, giving China six women’s medals, two behind the U.S.

Weightlifting accident at the Olympics

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The release date for the sixth Harry Potter movie, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” was pushed back on Thursday to July 2009 from its original slot in November 2008, movie studio Warner Bros. said.

The eight-month change in the opening date to July 17, 2009, is expected to disappoint millions of Harry Potter fans around the world who have already been waiting more than a year to watch the next big-screen installment in the international literary and film phenomenon.

Trailers for “Half-Blood Prince” began running last week in advance of the expected November movie release worldwide.

Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, said it had decided to make the change to bolster its release schedule for the lucrative summer moviegoing season — a period that can account for as much as 40 percent of Hollywood’s annual box office receipts.

Warner Bros. President Alan Horn said the studio was also still feeling repercussions from the three-month Hollywood screenwriters strike that ended in February but has “impacted the readiness of scripts for other films.”

“We know the summer season is an ideal window for a family … release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment,” Horn said.

The studio said the change of date would not alter production plans for the final, two-part Potter movie adventure, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” The release date for part one is tentatively set for November 2010.

“Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and last story from British author J.K. Rowling about the boy wizard and his friends at Hogwarts School, was published in July 2007. The series has sold an estimated 400 million copies, and the books have been translated into more than 60 languages.

I don’t know about you, but I was really looking forward to seeing this movie this fall!!! I can’t believe that they are pushing back the release of the movie because of money! I mean I think Harry Potter is pretty self sufficient when it comes to that. Maybe if people complain enough they will move it back to the original release date. Haha, now that’s some wishful thinking.

USA Weekend Box-Office Summary
week of 15 August 2008

Rank		Title	Weekend	Gross
1		Tropic Thunder (2008)	$26M	$37M
2		The Dark Knight (2008)	$16.8M	$471M
3		Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)	$15.5M	$15.5M
4		Mirrors (2008)	$11.1M	$11.1M
5		Pineapple Express (2008)	$10M	$62.9M
6		The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)	$8.61M	$86.6M
7		Mamma Mia! (2008)	$6.5M	$116M
8		The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008)	$5.93M	$32.1M
9		Step Brothers (2008)	$5M	$90.9M
10		Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)	$3.71M	$3.71M

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Tropic Thunder

Mirrors

Fly Me to the Moon 3D

Vicky Cristina Barcelona