Phelps smashes world record

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Phelps, who is looking to surpass Mark Spitz's long-standing record of seven golds at a single Olympics, was under world-record pace right from the start and eclipsed his own mark by an astonishing 1.41 seconds with a time of 4 minutes 3.84 seconds.

Hungarian Lazlo Cseh touched in second place in a European record time of 4:06.16, while Ryan Lochte took third, almost two seconds further adrift as Phelps decimated the field.

"I told Bob (Bowman, Phelps' coach) that this would be my last 400 IM, so I've got to go out there and get a good time," said Phelps. "And this was a good time."

Despite his impressive performance, Phelps actually trailed at the first turn as Cseh went out hard in the opening 50 metres, but by the end of the butterfly leg the American was in front with Lochte pushing in the backstroke to keep up.

But an impressive breaststroke leg left Phelps well clear and he powered even further clear in the freestyle to leave the rest trailing in his wake.

Australian Stephanie Rice matched Phelps by destroying the world record in the women's 400 metres Individual Medley.

Rice and Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry became the first women to go under 4:30 while Katie Hoff from the United States finished third, just outside the world record she set at the American trials.

Australian star Grant Hackett saw his hopes of a medal in the 400m freestyle dashed by South Korean Park Tae-hwan, who took gold in a time of 3:41.86 ahead of China's first medallist in the pool, Zhang Lin, and American Larsen Jensen.

The Netherlands claimed gold in an Olympic record time of 3:33.76 in the women's 4 x 100m freestyle.