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China took out the women's 4x100m medley relay world title setting a new world record time of 3min 52.19sec in Rome on Saturday.

China broke the previous record by .4 of a second previously set by Australia at the Beijing Olympics.

"It's so cool. We had a great race. We all improved our times by one second," said Zhao Jing, whose opening backstroke leg left China in second by a narrow margin.

Chen Huijia then gave her team a narrow lead on the second breaststroke leg, and they held off a battling Aussie squad to keep the advantage for the rest of the event.

"We all swam so well, we all did a great job today," said butterflyer Jiao Liuyang. "We weren't paying attention to the other teams we were too far from them. We concentrated on our own race."

Li Zhesi finished off the closing freestyle leg against former world record-holder Libby Trickett as Australia took silver in 3:52.58 – a time also under their Beijing world record.

"It was a tough competition, even without the US team, but we put together the race and we did our best," Trickett said.

The United States failed to qualify for the final, the first time in the history of the World Championships that the Americans failed to claim either first or second in the event.

Germany took out the bronze.

It was China's fourth swimming gold of the championships, a haul that included the first world swimming title for a man, Zhang Lin in the 800m free.

Questions:

1. Where were the world swimming championships being held?

2. In which event did the Chinese women’s team take out the gold and set a new world record?

3. Which team came third in the race?

Answers:

1. Rome.

2. The women's 4x100m medley.

3. Germany.

（英語點津 Helen 編輯）

Brendan joined The China Daily in 2007 as a language polisher in the Language Tips Department, where he writes a regular column for Chinese English Language learners, reads audio news for listeners and anchors the weekly video news in addition to assisting with on location stories. Elsewhere he writes Op’Ed pieces with a China focus that feature in the Daily’s Website opinion section.

He received his B.A. and Post Grad Dip from Curtin University in 1997 and his Masters in Community Development and Management from Charles Darwin University in 2003. He has taught in Japan, England, Australia and most recently China. His articles have featured in the Bangkok Post, The Taipei Times, The Asia News Network and in-flight magazines.