China held off a late surge by the USA to win the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay in a world-record time at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday.

The Chinese touched home in seven minutes 40.33 seconds, beating the record held by Australia by 1:17.

USA (7:40.73) took the silver medal while the bronze went to Australia (7:41.29).

The race completed a successful morning for China after Zhang Yufei’s dominant display in the women’s 200m butterfly.

The 23-year-old set a new Olympic record with a time of 2:03.86, while USA’s Regan Smith won silver and team-mate Hali Flickinger took the bronze medal.