After several setbacks, Australian women proved their dominance in the pool Sunday in women's 4X100 medley relay with an astonishing new world record.

With a relatively slow start, the Aussies dominated the pool during most of the race and shortened their own world record by almost three seconds.

Australian swimmer Emily Seebohm led off the race and finished fourth after the first leg. But teammate Leisel Jones caught up in breaststroke and Jessicah Schipper maintained the lead in butterfly.

The most nerve-wracking moment came when U.S. Olympic veteran Dara Torres bridged the gap in the anchor lag. But Australian world record holder Libby Trickett managed to keep the lead and anchored the race first in three minutes and 52.69 seconds. The United States finished second in 3:53.30.

"It's been full of highs and lows. We have a great history in this event since Athens. I've never been part of this event and to be anchor is such an honor. I really just wanted to bring it home and hold on for the girls," Trickett said.

Trickett and Torres faced off only half an hour ago in the women's 50-meter freestyle on Sunday morning, in which Torres won a silver medal and Trickett finished fourth.

Torres, whom Michael Phelps called "Mom", is a 41-year-old five-time Olympian. She has won 9 Olympic medals before the Beijing Games, including four relay gold medals.

"I moved over and dragged off her (Trickett) to try to get a little help. And afterwards she was saying 'tsk task' but you know that from experience," Torres said.

The victory set the Australians on jubilation. "It's great to get a world record and by three seconds," Schipper said. "We were joking in the marshalling area that we could take a couple of seconds off but when we touched and saw we had done it, it was an amazing feeling."

China, which finished fifth after the first 100 meter, successfully overtook Britain in the second 100 meter and rushed to the third after the third leg. Chinese freestyle specialist Pang Jiaying nailed the bronze medal in the anchor leg.

"This is a medal I have been dreaming for a long time. I didn't pay attention to others, I only knew to give myself out (in the race)," Zhou Yafei, who swam the butterfly leg said. "One (key to our success) is the advantage of competing at home and the passion of the crowd."

By far, Australia has won two gold medals and one bronze in the women's relay events in Beijing. The Netherlands won one gold. The United States won two silvers and a bronze. China won one silver and one bronze.

Source: Xinhua