Australia's wonderkid Ian Thorpe gained some consolation for missing out on the 2000m freestyle title yesterday as he grabbed his third gold in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay.

The 17-year-old led them off as the quartet shattered the old world record by a massive 1.74secs to win in 7:07.05 with the second-placed Americans five seconds further back.

Britain's team, which were in the silver medal spot at one stage and in bronze medal contention with around 50m left, eventually faded to fifth.

The quartet of Ed Sinclair, Paul Palmer, Marc Spackman and James Salter clocked 7:17.98 to shatter the two-year-old national mark by well over four seconds.

Palmer insisted that despite the disappointment at missing out on a medal, Britain's swimmers were ``getting there''.

``It's just taking a bit longer than maybe the public hoped,'' he added.

``We got stuck in and we gave it our best shot. It was a great race - it's unfortunate we came fifth.''

Salter, who swam the final length, told BBC TV: ``I was having a great week up until then and that's just taken a little (of the) shine off.

``I thought I could get the American down the last 50m because I was swimming very strongly at the back end, but it just wasn't enough.

``You have got to look on the positive side. All four of us here have competed in the best Olympic Games ever.''