TOKYO: China's women stunned the field to smash the world record and win the Olympic 4x200m relay title in a major upset Thursday.
The team of Yang Junxuan, Tang Muhan, Zhang Yufei and Li Bingjie touched in 7mins 40.33 seconds ahead of the United States (7:40.73) and Australia (7:41.29).
It is the first time neither Australia nor the USA have won gold since the event was introduced in 1996.
All three teams were under the previous world record of 7:41.50 set by Australia at the 2019 world championships.
But China took the title after Li held off a late charge by America's Katie Ledecky, who threatened an incredible comeback during the final leg.
"We didn’t expect to win the gold," said Li. "We thought we would finish third because Australia and the United States are very strong.
"We thought maybe we could be competitive with Canada so when we talked about tactics in the morning we just talked about what we would do against Canada."
Ledecky's 1:53.76 was the fastest leg of the race.
"These girls swam their lights out and I got in a position where I thought I could take on those ladies next to us," Ledecky said.
"I wish I had another half-second in me but I gave it my all."
Australia had been the overwhelming favourites coming in, with their women's team already winning gold in the 4x100m relay on Sunday, when they broke their own world record.
With Australian star Ariarne Titmus leading the team off on the back of wins in the 200m and 400m freestyle events this week, the expectation was they would cruise to another victory.
"It was a really fast race," Titmus said. "We were under our previous world record, so it was still a good swim from us.
"I feel like I should've been better but it's what you can do on the day and it's been a big couple of days, so I'm happy to come away on the podium."
Titmus trailed Yang at the end of the first leg and that set the tone, as Australia's Emma McKeon, a bronze medallist in the 100m butterfly, was behind after the second too.
China's Zhang, who had earlier won gold in the 200m butterfly, conceded some ground to America's Katie McLaughlin and Australian Madison Wilson in the third, before Ledecky made her move.
The six-time Olympic gold medallist pushed past Australian anchor Leah Neale and looked like she could even snatch victory with one length left to go.
But Li dug in, holding off Ledecky to win by less than half-a-second and secure China their second swimming gold of the Games.
China's diving domination has Olympic rivals in awe but also wary
China's unrelenting domination of Olympic diving has rivals in Tokyo wondering not just how they can beat them, but also whether the country's approach is desirable or even healthy.
China have more or less cleaned up in Olympic diving over the last 30 years and even though their hopes of winning all eight golds at the Tokyo Games have gone, they can still match the seven from Rio in 2016.
So far at the pandemic-delayed Games they have taken three out of four diving titles, with Britain springing a surprise by grabbing the other.
Chinese divers competing in the Japanese capital have consistently talked about the hard work they put in and the support from the country's sports authorities, without going into much more detail.
But after winning the men's synchronised 3m springboard on Wednesday, Xie Siyi gave perhaps more insight than he intended when he talked about "very boring" training day after day and living with his team-mates in dormitories.
In unusually blunt terms for China's often guarded athletes, Xie added: "Every day we go from the dormitory to the training centre, then we go back to eat, then we go back to training, then we go back to sleep again."
On Tuesday, China easily won the women's 10m synchronised platform thanks to two teenagers: Chen Yuxi, 15, and Zhang Jiaqi, 17.
Eden Cheng, who along with partner Lois Toulson finished seventh of eight for Britain, is slightly older at 18.
Cheng believes China's success is down to the sheer number of hours that they train. But she has other considerations because she knows that her life will not always be diving.
"I've just finished school with my A-Levels (final school exams) so I have been a full-time student as well as diving," said Cheng.
"For them, they don't do much education, they are very focused on their sport.
"They do live at the pool. I've been to the national pool that one of the (Chinese) girls dives at and I've seen the facilities and what their life is like.
"It's nothing compared to what we do in Britain. They are definitely next level."
- 'Under the line of ok' -
Other Olympic divers trying to keep up with the Chinese say it is also because, with the world's biggest population and a strong track record in the sport, China have such a vast selection of talent to pick from.
They also believe that the Chinese get into diving from a much younger age.
Chen and Zhang, the teenage Olympic champions, have been diving since they were four.
"For me, I just feel like a lot of them start really young," said Delaney Schnell, 22, who won silver behind the fearless Chinese pair. Schnell began diving at 10.
"In the US, not everyone starts young," she added.
"But their technique is also unbelievable. They train technique, technique, technique, and I think that's something that a lot of countries are trying to learn to do."
Patrick Hausding, whose bronze for Germany on Wednesday was his third Olympic medal, is a relative veteran at 32.
He said that he had been to China many times to compete and was always struck by how many children are diving and how prominent the sport is there compared to Germany.
"When you see them practising and the amount of little kids that they have coming through, there are so many," said Hausding.
But, picking his words carefully, he is wary of what he believes young Chinese divers can be subjected to.
"Hard work and discipline, but probably sometimes under the line (of) where it's healthy or where it's ok," he said.