By John Lohn
MELBOURNE, Australia, March 31. ALTHOUGH the United States turned in another spectacular evening, winning gold medals in four events, Australia provided the home crowd with something to cheer up in the final event of the session. Ahead of pace the entire way, the Aussie foursome of Emily Seebohm, Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper and Libby Lenton notched a world-record time of 3:55.74.
The Aussies broke their own standard of 3:56.30, set at last year's Commonwealth Games. Seebohm jumpstarted the Australian squad with a 1:00.79 effort on the backstroke leg and was followed by Jones going 1:04.94 for the breaststroke. That split is the fastest in history for the breast. Schipper then added a 57.18 effort for the butterfly and allowed Lenton to close it out with a 52.83 anchor split.
"I think this is the best relay team I've ever been on," Jones said. "These girls just got up there and did their job."
The silver medal went to the United States in 3:58.31, the narrowest of margins shy of its American record of 3:58.31. Natalie Coughlin led off in 1:00.66, more than a second off her world-record back time from earlier in the meet. Tara Kirk then split 1:06.37 for the breaststroke and Rachel Komisarz posted a 57.06 butterfly effort. Lacey Nymeyer brought it home in 54.22.
Registering a time of 4:01.97, the Chinese quartet of Xutian Longzi, Luo Nan, Zhou Yafei and Xu Yanwei earned the bronze medal, ahead of the 4:02.18 by Great Britain. Russia was fifth in 4:03.32.
Click Here to view event results PDF file.
