ROME: China snatched the women's 4x200m freestyle relay gold medal in a world record time of seven minutes 42.08 seconds at the world swimming championships here on Thursday.

The team of Yang Yu, Zhu Qian Wei, Liu Jing and Pang Jiaying broke the previous mark of 7:44.31 set by Australia at the Beijing Olympics on Aug 14, 2008.

The United States finished second and Britain third.