AUSSIES 20 STRONG MEDAL HAUL

BEIJING, CHINA, August  17: Australia has rounded off its Olympic swimming campaign at the National Aquatics Centre by winning four further medals on a thrilling morning of swimming action.

The women's 4x100m medley relay won gold in a new world record time, while Grant Hackett and the men's 4x100m medley relay took silver and Cate Campbell won her first individual Olympic medal with  bronze in the women's 50m freestyle. DAVID LYALL AOC REPORTS...

The women's team of Emily Seebohm (59.33, Commonwealth record), Leisel Jones (1:04.58), Jessicah Schipper (56.25) and Libby Trickett (52.53) clocked a 3.05 second world record of 3:52.69.

The USA pushed Australia all the way and grabbed silver in 3:53.50, while China was well back in third in 3:56.11.

Seebohm led off in a personal best to touch fourth before Jones took her team to the lead with one of the greatest swims of her illustrious career. She grabbed the lead from the American's and split 1.67 seconds quicker than Rebecca Soni who had upset her in the 200m breaststroke a few mornings ago.

Schipper then maintained her lead, giving only 0.11s back to American Christine Magnuson. Australia's lead stood at 0.87 and it came down to a battle between Trickett and 41-year-old superstar Dara Torres.

The Australian held her mettle and hung on for the memorable victory, defending the title won at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games by Giaan Rooney, Jones, Petria Thomas and Jodie Henry.

In the men's race Hayden Stoeckel (53.80), Brenton Rickard (58.56), Andrew Lauterstein (51.03) and Eamon Sullivan (46.65) smashed the former world record but still finished 0.70s behind the USA team that included Michael Phelps and won the American megastar an historic eighth gold medal at these Games.

Grant Hackett had earlier fallen agonisingly short of recording an historic third successive gold medal in the men's 1500m freestyle. 

The Australian swim team captain clock 14:41.53 but couldn't haul in US trained Tunisian Oussama Mellouli who won gold in 14:40.84. Canadian Ryan Cochrane was third in 14:42.69.

The race began as a stroke for stroke battle between Hackett in lane four and young Cochrane in lane five. The pair was never more than half a second apart through the first two thirds of the race. Mellouli lay in wait in lane seven and he hit the lead for the first time at the 1100m point. From there he was never headed.

By the 1200m mark his lead over Hackett was 0.90 seconds, by the 1300m it was 1.29s and by the turn for the last 100m it had blown out to 1.37. Hackett was not going to give up without a tremendous fight though and with the crowd on their feet and support of a nation willing his every stroke he got to within 0.69s. Heartbreakingly it wasn't enough. 

German Britta Steffen again spoiled an Australian party after beating Cate Campbell and Libby Trickett in the 50 metres freestyle.

Steffen, who earlier in the week had won the 100m freestyle over Trickett, hit the wall in 24.06 - the second fastest time in history.

American Dara Torres was a hair away in second in 24.07; Campbell was third in 24.17 and Trickett fourth in 24.25.

Campbell, 16, had swum well below her best in the 100m freestyle earlier in the week but today the world saw the prodigious talent that many expect to rewrite the record books in the coming years.

She had swum her heat and semi-final alongside Torres, who at 41-years-of- age is competing in her fifth Olympics after making her debut at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games before twice retiring.

Trickett won the 100m butterfly, was second in the 100m freestyle and third in the 4x100m freestyle relay earlier in these Games. 

The four medals brought Australia's total haul from the Water Cube to 20 - six gold, six silver and eight bronze.