The Chinese quartet withstood a severe final challenge from German world record holder Britta Steffen to bag home the gold of the women's 4x100 meters medley relay at China Open here on Monday.

"We performed quite well, especially Zhu Qianwei who stood the pressure in the last lap," said Chinese breaststroke Sun Ye after the team edged Germany in four minutes 7.61 seconds.

The Chinese team led in big margin in the first three laps but was chased tightly in the final lap as Steffen, the 100 meters freestyle world record holder, surged fiercely in her specialty.

Zhu was totally out of match in the last 100 meters, while Steffen chased back 2.14 seconds for the German squad. However, Zhu managed to touch the wall 0.18 second ahead of the speedy Steffen, who had grabbed the titles of the 50 meters and 100 meters freestyle in the past two days.

South Korea got the bronze in 4:17.35.

"We are pleased with the result," said Birte Steven representing the German team. "Britta swam really fast, but we hope for better performance at the Olympic Games."

(Xinhua News Agency February 4, 2008)