Team GB has won the gold medal in the 4x100m medley relay at the Tokyo Olympics.
Their stellar performance at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre is a new world record – coming in at three minutes, 37.58 seconds.
Kathleen Dawson, Adam Peaty, James Guy and Anna Hopkin finished 1.28 seconds ahead of China who took silver, with Australia picking up bronze.
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Adam Peaty, James Guy, Anna Hopkin and Kathleen Dawson celebrate after winning the inaugural 4×100 medley relay. Pic: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
The US finished fifth – scuppering Caeleb Dressel’s hopes of picking up six gold medals in Tokyo.
Great Britain’s win is all the more remarkable considering Dawson slipped on the wall at the start of the race.
Team GB has now secured seven medals in the swimming at Tokyo 2020 – four gold, two silver, and one bronze – matching a tally last seen at the 1908 Olympics in London.
The 4x100m medley relay is a new event at the Games – featuring teams consisting of two women and two men.
Each team member swims a 100m leg in one the four main swimming strokes: backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
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Guy and Peaty celebrate after being part of the team that cemented a new world record in the 4x100m medley relay
Great Britain made a stunning comeback as the race unfolded – and when Peaty jumped into the pool, Team GB was in sixth place.
The breaststroke gold medallist pushed Team GB up to fourth with a time of 56.78 seconds – and the team went into first after Guy, who won his first gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay earlier this week, clocked 50 seconds in the butterfly.
There was a jubilant atmosphere in the aquatics centre after Hopkin completed the final leg in 52 seconds flat.
The medley relay has shaped up to be one of these most unpredictable events in the pool, with the frontrunners continually chopping and changing.
Eirianedd Munro, Peaty’s partner, wrote on Instagram: “I’m in tears! What an incredible race. So proud!!!”
It was the second team medal for Team GB in the early hours of Saturday after Jess Learmonth, Jonny Brownlee, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Alex Yee secured first place in the mixed triathlon relay.
