BEIJING - Michael Phelps won his fifth gold medal in the Beijing Olympics as the United States smashed the world record to easily win the 4x200m freestyle relay in a time of 6min:58,56sec yesterday.

BEIJING - Michael Phelps won his fifth gold medal in the Beijing Olympics as the United States smashed the world record to easily win the 4x200m freestyle relay in a time of 6min:58,56sec yesterday.

Phelps, utterly dominating the Water Cube, had earlier won his fourth gold medal of these Games with victory in the 200m butterfly and he now has an unprecedented 11 career golds following his six in Athens four years ago.

Russia claimed the silver medal and Australia the bronze.

But there was never any doubt about the US defending their Olympic title and beating their own record of 7:03,24 set at the world championships in Melbourne last year.

Phelps swam the lead-off leg in a time of 1:43,31 to give his team a handsome lead, which teammates Ryan Lochte, Rickey Berens and Peter Vanderkaay were never in danger of losing. - Reuter