Rice sees off Hoff for shock gold

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Video - Rice breaks record in medley final

Australian Stephanie Rice won gold in the Olympic women's 400m individual medley with a new world record and left hot favourite Katie Hoff back in third.

Rice claimed victory in four minutes 29.45 seconds as she just edged out Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe.

American former world record holder Hoff disappointed and was more than two seconds behind the winner.

Scot Hannah Miley said she was pleased with her performance after finishing sixth in 4:39.44.

"I've got to take all the positives from it, and I was over the moon to make the final," the 19-year-old told BBC Sport.

"I'm a little disappointed not to get near my personal best but I'll take what I can from it and make sure I improve."

No woman had gone under four minutes 30 seconds in this race before, and both the front two beat the mark.

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Hannah Miley reflects on her performance

Before heading out to Beijing, Rice was making headlines away from the pool in Australia.

Just before the Olympics she broke up with fellow Aussie swimmer Eamon Sullivan, who is competing in the 50m freestyle, and was previously asked by Swimming Australia to block public access to her personal facebook page which had pictures of her in a policewoman's uniform.

But she put all that behind her to claim glory in Beijing with a stunning performance in a world record time.

"It's great!" Rice said.

"I turned around and I thought I saw 4:31 on the clock.

"The first thing that went through my mind was 'that hurt a lot for a 4:31 time,' but when it all clocked over and I realised I had swum a 4:29, I thought 'that's amazing!'"