Olympics Rio 2016: US wins men's medley relay, golden send-off for Michael Phelps
ByReuters
Updated 14/08/2016 at 04:02 GMT
The United States won the men's 4x100 metres medley relay after Ryan Murphy had given them a world record start that propelled Michael Phelps to a 23rd gold medal in his final Olympic race.
Michael Phelps
Image credit: AFP
Great Britain took the silver medal and Australia bronze.
Phelps, who swam the third butterfly leg, ends the most successful Olympic career of all time with 23 golds, three silver and two bronze.
Murphy broke the world record for the 100 backstroke in the leadoff, clocking 51.85 seconds to eclipse the 51.94 that compatriot Aaron Peirsol swam in 2009.
Britain's Olympic champion Adam Peaty then swam the breaststroke leg in a scorching 56.59 seconds to move his team up from sixth to first place, with Cody Miller touching second for the US at half-way.
A huge roar went up when Phelps hit the water for the butterfly and then caught and overhauled Britain's James Guy to hand a 0.41 second cushion to Nathan Adrian.
After the race, Phelps raised his alarms aloft to acknowledge the cheers from the crowd, while fiancée Nicole wiped tears from her eyes as she cradled their baby, Boomer, in the crowd.
The Americans finished in three minutes, 27.95 seconds, an Olympic record, to win by 1.29 seconds.
The United States won its 1,000th Olympic gold medal earlier on Saturday when the American women swimmers won their 4x100 metre medley relay.
The honour of reaching the milestone was shared by Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dan Vollmer and Simone Manuel getting to the wall first ahead of arch-rivals Australia.
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