In a sensational race Adam Peaty, James Guy, Kathleen Dawson, Anna Hopkin overcame their Australian, American and Chinese rivals. Britain won the race in a world record time of 3:37.58.

Kathleen Dawson had a disastrous start to the race – slipping on her push off on her 100m backstroke leg.

However, each member of the quartet pulled off a herculean task, clawing back precious seconds with each lap.

Going into the second leg of the race, Adam Peaty began in fifth and around five seconds down.

He chipped away at the deficit into the last 50m of his leg.

James Guy then clocked his phenomenal 100m butterfly in 50 seconds flat.

Anna Hopkins brought the medal home with a fantastic last leg.

China finished the race in second with a time of 3:38.86 and Australia took home the bronze with 3:38.95.

Speaking to the BBC, Kathleen Dawson said: “I was swimming my own race and it didn’t matter if it was against men or women.”

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When asked why the British team was so good, Adam Peaty said: “One word has changed the whole British team – belief.

“We believe we can win, we believe we can get world records.

“If you have belief you can build everything around that and we showed that tonight.”