(BEIJING, August 17) -- The Australian Women's 4 x 100m Medley Relay team made up for some disappointing performances on the last few days of competition at the National Aquatics Center to break the world record and take the gold medal on Sunday, the final day of swimming competition.
As the defending Olympic champions, world champions, world record holders and fastest qualifiers for the final they proved their credentials with a series of stunning swims to take the gold medal in a world record time of 3: 52.69 and slash 3.05 seconds off the old world mark.
The US team led early thanks to a blistering Backstroke leg of 58.94 from 100m Backstroke gold medalist Natalie Coughlin but the Australian team of Emily Seebohm, Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper, and Lisbeth Trickett performed flawlessly to rein in the US and open up a decisive gap.
Jones swam a stunning second 50m of her Breaststroke leg to pull away from the US's Rebecca Soni in a world record split - 1.82 seconds under the world mark. Schipper also swam an exceptional Butterfly leg to strengthen Australia's lead over the US and further lower the world record split by 2.75 seconds.
Trickett took to the water with a good lead over Dara Torres (USA) who swam an excellent final leg in 52.27 but Trickett held on to bring the Australians home.
The US team of Coughlin, Soni, Christine Magnuson and Torres also went under the old world mark in winning the silver medal in 3:53.30.
China had a great swim to take the bronze medal in an Asian record 3:56.11. Their team was comprised of Zhao Jing, Sun Ye, Zhou Yafei and Pang Jiaying.
Great Britain finished fourth but in the process managed to set a European record 3:57.50.
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