AUSSIES IN THE MEDALS BUT GOLD IS ELUSIVE
Hackett surprisingly still holds the 1500m world record, as DAVID MOASE reports ...
To play with legendary swimming commentator Norman May's famous 1980 call, it was ‘bronze, bronze, bronze and more bronze for Australia' at the Foro Italico pool today.
Sarah Katsoulis, Cate Campbell, Stephanie Rice and the men's medley relay team all found themselves right in the finish of their events but all had to be content with third place.
The four bronze medals today took Australia's tally in the pool to three gold medals, four silver and nine bronze, placing them fourth on the medal table behind the United States, Germany and China.
Probably the biggest surprise today was that the world record avalanche slowed a little - there were ‘only' four, bringing the 
championships total to an incredible 43- and Hackett's 1500m mark from 2001 survived the assault of the super suits.
In a surprisingly low-key final, race favourite Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia took the 1500m gold in 14:37.28, leaving the 14:34.56 time Hackett set in Fukuoka as the benchmark.
The Australian's record and Kate Ziegler's women's 1500m time from 2007 are the only two world that remain from the pre-super suits era. Many will be hoping they see out the year until the ban of polyurethane and similar products.
Canada's Ryan Cochrane was the one to throw down the gauntlet to Mellouli, taking a significant lead from about the 400m mark. 
The Tunisian stepped up his pace around 800 metres and once he had moved into the lead he didn't look like being challenged, pulling away from Cochrane in the last few laps to win by 4.10 seconds.
It was far from an epic race like the Mellouli-Hackett clash in Beijing as other contenders such as China's Sun Yang, who finished third in 14:46.84, his countryman Zhang Lin and Spain's Marco Rivera raced conservatively and never gave themselves a chance to win.
SUPERFAST MEDLEY RELAY ENDS HIGH-SPEED CHAMPIONSHIPS
Australia was one of four teams to swim inside the old world record on their way to third place in the 4x100m medley relay.
While the Michael Phelps and Aaron Peirsol-led Americans raced away to set a new world mark of 3:27.28, Australia and Germany staged a thrilling battle for bronze, with double gold medallist Paul Biedermann just touching out Matt Targett.
Backstroker Ashley Delaney enjoyed his best swim of the championships to keep Australia close to the leaders in the opening leg, touching the wall in a personal best 53.10.
Brenton Rickard showed the form that took him to the 100m breaststroke gold medal earlier in the championships, recording easily the fastest breaststroke split of the race to take Australia to the halfway mark virtually level with the US and Germany.
The big challenge for Andrew Lauterstein was staying in touch with Phelps in the butterfly leg, something he achieved for 70 metres but the superstar pulled away to give his team the decisive advantage.
The Americans went into the final leg with a one second advantage over Australia that was never likely to be bridged so the big challenge for Targett was staying ahead of Biedermann, who hit the water 0.21 seconds behind the Aussie, and Brazil's 100m freestyle gold medallist Cesar Cielo.
Despite Targett's valiant effort, Biedermann pulled ahead within sight of the wall to claim silver while the Australians did enough to stave off Cielo's sizzling 46.22 finishing leg, taking bronze in a Commonwealth record time of 3:28.64.
PERSONAL BESTS WIN MEDALS FOR SARAH AND CATE
Sarah Katsoulis won her first major international medal by finishing third in a thrilling 50m breaststroke final.
The 25-year-old gave herself every chance of winning gold with a great start and solid swim only to be touched out in a desperate finish by Russian Yuliya Efimova, who set a world record of 30.09, and American Rebecca Soni.
Katsoulis swam a big personal best of 30.16, inside the previous world record, while Tarnee White was eighth in 30.91.
Team mate Cate Campbell went into the 50m freestyle final as the fastest qualifier but she had to bow to one of the swimmers of the meet, Germany's Britta Steffen.
Olympic champion Steffen showed her customary finishing speed to hit the wall in a tearaway 23.73-seconds world record.
She finished ahead of Sweden's Therese Alshammar, who trains with the NSW Institute of Sport squad, while Campbell dead-heated with Holland's Marleen Veldhuis in third place in 23.99, her first time under 24 seconds.
Libby Trickett placed sixth in 24.19.
The first of today's 50m finals saw Great Britain's Liam Tancock win the backstroke final in a world record 24.04 ahead of Japan's Junya Koka and South Africa's Gerhard Zandberg.
RICE LOSES GOLD IN BACKSTROKE BLACK SPOT
An unusually bad backstroke leg cost Stephanie Rice any chance of winning gold in the 400m individual medley today but the world record she set in Beijing still stands.
Rice was neck and neck with Hungary's Katinka Hosszu after the butterfly leg but slipped back to sixth by the end of the backstroke, more than three seconds behind Hosszu and Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry.
Her form lifted in the breaststroke and freestyle to help her claw back some of the time but she had to be content with third place in 4:32.29, almost three seconds outside her world record.
Hosszu won gold in 4:30.31, with Coventry second in 4:32.12.
American Ryan Lochte's busy Rome campaign caught up with him in the final 20 metres of the men's 400m IM final but he had just enough petrol in the tank to desperately grasp the gold medal.
Lochte opened up a big lead in the backstroke and breaststroke legs and looked to be cruising to a comfortable win before he slowed dramatically late in the final lap.
He dug deep to hold off team mate Tyler Clary by 0.30 seconds in a time of 4:07.01, with Hungary's Laszlo Cseh third.