Rebecca Cooke celebrates her 400m individual silver

The 22-year-old was 2.69sec behind Australian Stephanie Rice, who set a new Games record of 4mins 41.91secs.

Cooke's team-mate, Terri Dunning, took the bronze in the 200m butterfly.

And Dunning, 21, then added a silver as England finished second behind new world record-holders Australia in the 4x100m medley relay.

Cooke was delighted to add another medal to her tally in an event that never used to be her number one priority.

"It used to be a fun event for me. It is now something I do train for in my programme," Cooke said.

"I knew the freestyle was my strongest leg and I knew I could catch up a lot (on the leader) but I didn't have enough because she was too far ahead of me."

Dunning, meanwhile, clocked a time of two minutes, 09.87 seconds for her third place in the butterfly.

Australia's world champion Jessicah Schipper took gold in 2:06.09, just outside the world record, with team mate Felicity Galvez in second.

"I decided to keep my head down and just go for it," Dunning told the BBC.

To come here and get my first championship medal is great England's Terri Dunning

Dunning recovered from a slow start, which saw her reach the 50m mark in fifth place, and it took a huge effort to haul herself into medal contention.

"It was really tough on that last length but I'm really pleased," said the Stafford-born swimmer.

"It is my first major games and to come here and get my first championship medal is great. I have just had to keep focused all week."

Dunning then teamed up with Melanie Marshall, Kate Haywood and Francesca Halsall in the medley as England took the silver medal in four minutes 04.61 seconds.

Swimming skills: Learn the strokes

Marshall equalled fellow swimmer Brian Brinkley (1974) and shooter Malcolm Cooper's (1982) record as the most prolific English medallist at a single Commonwealth Games when she won silver in the 4x100m medley relay for her sixth medal.

But there were well down on the awesome Australian quartet of Sophie Edington, Leisel Jones, Schipper and Lisbeth Lenton, who set a new world mark of 3:56.30.

They chipped more than a full second off the old record of 3:57.32, set by the Australian team of Giaan Rooney, Jones, Petria Thomas and Jodie Henry at the 2004 Athens Olympics.