Silver went to the US team, who were. 48 seconds behind China, while Great Britain took bronze in a time of 7:45.51.

Australian Christian Sprenger broke Kosuke Kitajima's men's 200m breaststroke world record in the semi-finals as he qualified for the final in a time of 2:07.31.

Shanteau, who had earlier in the session swum the 200m individual medley had the second fastest time, ahead of Australian Brenton Rickard.

In the men's 200m individual medley, American Ryan Lochte managed to beat the old best mark belonging to his friend Michael Phelps, who opted not to swim this event in Rome. Phelps' time was 1:54.23 while Lochte, who is known on the swim circuit for his free spirit, had a time of 1:54.10.

The silver medal went to Hungarian Laszlo Cseh, who was 1.14 seconds off the pace. Lochte's compatriot Shanteau won the bronze medal in a time of 1:55.36.

Shanteau said he was happy with his result. 'It felt great, I was close to the silver, but I don't care, I wanted to medal and I got my best time. I managed that and that is all I care about.'

Lochte later took part in the semi-finals of the men's 200m backstroke, finishing in fifth place to comfortably go through to the finals.

His compatriot Aaron Peirsol topped the rankings in a championship record time of 1:54.06, while Ryosuke Irie from Japan had the second fastest-time.

In the semi-finals of the women's 200m breaststroke Canadian Pierse proved too strong for the rest of the field, as she qualified for the finals in a time of 2:20.12, beating American Rebecca Soni and Austrian Mirna Jukic into second and third place.

'I was just trying to make it into the finals, so for that it was a great time and I am looking forward to the final,' Soni said.

Defending champion from Australia, Libby Trickett, led the field into the final of the women's 100m freestyle in a time of 52.84, beating Germany's world record holder Britta Steffen by just three hundredth of a second.

American Amanda Weir and Fran Halsall from Britain followed with the third and fourth fastest time.