A British team spearheaded by Tom Dean and Duncan Scott stormed to victory in the men's Olympic 4x200m relay on Wednesday, narrowly missing the world record.

Led off by recently-crowned 200m champion Dean and brought home by Scott, they touched in 6min 58.58sec, just outside the 6:58.55 global mark held by the United States.

"I think this is really special, with those boys," Scott said. "We were so close to the world record in the end, if anything I'm a bit gutted."

It meant the British team, which featured James Guy and Matthew Richards on the middle legs, went one better than at Rio in 2016, when they came second. 

"As a kid an Olympic gold medal was my absolute dream," said Guy. "To do it finally at 25 years old is pretty emotional. These four lads are the best freestylers in the world. 

"Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Conor Dwyer did it in Rio and now we're the Olympic champions. That's just a dream come true."

Russia took silver in 7:01.81, with Australia claiming bronze in 7:01.84 after a sizzling final leg by Thomas Neill. 

The United States missed out on a medal in the men's relay for the first time in Olympics history, on the back of claiming four golds in a row in the 200m.

They were without superstar Caeleb Dressel, who opted out to focus on his other events, and came fourth.

The Americans were in front after the opening 200m thanks to Kieran Smith, but they were quickly reeled in by the Brits, with Guy and Richards swimming powerful middle legs before handing over to Scott.