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Highlights from September 19 - day five of the Sydney Olympics.
WHAY HAPPENED ON SEPTEMBER 19 - DAY FIVE OF THE SYDNEY OLYMPICS
General - This was the only day when Australia won three gold medals at the Sydney Games. The host nation saluted in the eventing team event, the men's 4x200m freestyle and the women's 200m freestyle (Susie O'Neill). The only other time that had previously happened was back at the 1956 Melbourne Games. Australia also went on to have triple-gold days in Athens and Beijing.
Equestrian - Australia won the Olympic team event for the third successive time, becoming the first and only country to achieve the feat. Andrew Hoy was a member of all three teams and his hat-trick of gold medals has only been surpassed by Dutchman Charles Pahud de Mortanges, who won four golds in eventing between 1924 and 1932.
Swimming - It was only the second time Australia won the men's 4x200m freestyle event, after 1956, when the Games were also held in Australia. It was Ian Thorpe's third gold medal and his final tally of five medals was the most by any competitor at the Games. Australia won in a world-record time of 7:07.05.
Susie O'Neill won the women's 200m freestyle at the age of 27 years and 48 days, making her the oldest Australian woman to claim Olympic swimming gold. O'Neill was only the second Australian to win gold in this event after Shane Gould in Munich 1972.
Justin Norris won a bronze for Australia in the 200m butterfly to become the first Australian to place higher than Michael Phelps in an individual Olympic final. Ian Thorpe was the only other Australian to achieve this feat during Phelps' unparalleled Olympic career which continued right through to 2016 in Rio.
Eric 'The Eel' Moussambani from Equatorial Guinea won no medals, but won the world's hearts despite swimming the slowest 100m freestyle on record at the Olympic Games - one minute 52.72 seconds. In comparison, gold medallist Pieter van den Hoogenband clocked 48.30.
* Information provided by Gracenote - a Nielsen Company
