Holland team claim gold
The Netherlands women's 4x100m freestyle team took Olympic gold and set a new Games record at the Water Cube in Beijing.
Last Updated: 10/08/08 7:01am
The Netherlands women's 4x100m freestyle team took Olympic gold and set a new Games record at the Water Cube in Beijing in the last event of Sunday's finals morning.
They were dominant throughout and held on from the fast-finishing United States and Australia teams who seemed to be outpaced in the middle legs.
Inge Dekker (54.37), Ranomi Kromowidjojo (53.39), Femke Heemskerk (53.42) and Marleen Veldhuis (52.58) produced enough pace to come home in a time of 3:33.76 seconds.
Great Britain were drawn outside Australia in lane eight and were in front of their nearest opponents for much of the contest before weakening in the final two legs.
The British team eventually finished seventh, setting a new British record, but it was nowhere near the time of the new Olympic champions, who added an Olympic record to their world record they claimed earlier this year.
"To say we are happy would be an understatement," said Veldhuis.
"We knew we had to explode into the water and see what happens. We were hoping to win it, but we never expected to win like that."
Jessica Sylvester was happy with the efforts of her British team. She said: "It's amazing to be with these three girls and it's nice to be in my first Olympics final."