Australia's Kylie Palmer, centre, Bronte Barratt and Stephanie Rice, left, celebrate setting a new world record and winning the gold in the women's 4x200-meter freestyle relay final. Photo by AP.
Rice, Bronte Barratt, Kylie Palmer and Linda Mackenzie touched in 7 minutes, 44.31 seconds, lowering the old mark of 7min 50.09sec set by the United States at last year's world championships in Australia.
Rice earned her third gold medal of the Beijing Games, having swept both individual medleys with world-record times.
The Chinese team of Yang Yu, Zhu Qianwei, Tan Miao and Pang Jiaying took the silver in 7min 45.93sec.
The United States team of Allison Schmitt, Natalie Coughlin, Caroline Burckle and Katie Hoff earned the bronze in 7min 46.33sec, the first time the Americans have not won the event since it began in 1996.
