Two more world records were broken on a scintillating second day of action at the Short Course World Swimming Championships in Melbourne.
During day one of the Championships, Australia's women's 4x100m freestyle relay team and Italy's men's 4x100m freestyle relay team both set new world records on their way to the gold medal in their events.
The home nation would become world-beaters once again on Wednesday, as the women's 4x200m freestyle relay team blew the competition out of the water to take the title in a record time of 7:30.87.
The team of Madison Wilson, Leah Neale, Mollie O'Callaghan and Lani Pallister - who won gold in the women's 400m freestyle race on day one - beat the Canadians by over three and a half seconds to finish first in front of the Australian crowd.
Canada took the silver with 7:34.47, just pipping the third-placed USA (7:34.70), as Australia broke the record that the Netherlands had held for eight years since the 2014 Championships in Doha.
The second world record of day two belonged to the USA's mixed 4x50m medley relay team, as Nic Fink, Kate Douglass, Torri Huske and Ryan Murphy posted a time of 1:35.15 to claim the gold medal.
4x200 Free New World Record holders 👉⏱️7:30.87
— World Aquatics (@WorldAquatics) December 14, 2022
Congrats team Australia!
🇦🇺Madison Wilson
🇦🇺Leah Neale
🇦🇺Mollie O'Callaghan
🇦🇺Lani Pallister pic.twitter.com/hhibeHDdEe
Italy's time of 1:36.01 in second was enough for a new European record, while Canada took the bronze with 1:36.93 and Great Britain just missed out on their first medal of the Championships, finishing fourth with 1:37.07 on the clock.
Meanwhile, the five individual finals on day two were headlined by Brazilian veteran Nicholas Santos, who defended his men's 50m butterfly title in a course record time of 21.78 before calling ending his competitive career.
The 42-year-old retires with six Short Course World Championship titles to his name, as well as four medals at the World Aquatics Championships, and he beat Switzerland's Noe Ponti (21.96) and Hungary's Szebasztin Szabo (21.98) to the title.
In the women's 50m butterfly event, the USA's Huske and Canada's Margaret Mac Neil remarkably shared the world title after both finishing with a time of 24.64, as China's Yufei Zhang (24.71) won the bronze.
Australian 20-year-old Pallister followed up her 400m freestyle crown with another gold medal in the women's 800m freestyle, finishing over six seconds quicker than New Zealand's Erika Fairweather, who also won silver behind Pallister in the 400m event.
It was also one and two for Australia in the women's 100m backstroke, with Kaylee McKeown (55.49) winning gold ahead of O'Callaghan (55.62), while the USA's Claire Curzan and Canada's Ingrid Wilm (both 55.74) shared the bronze.
Finally, another course record was broken in the men's 100m backstroke by four-time Olympic champion Ryan Murphy, as the American scooped the world title with 48.50 seconds on the clock, beating Italy's Lorenzo Mora (49.04) and Australia's Isaac Cooper (49.52) to top spot.
Ben Knapton
