Cooke could not steer Britain to a medal on the final leg

Melanie Marshall, Caitlin McClatchey, Joanne Jackson and Rebecca Cooke were edged into fourth as the USA took gold, Australia silver and China bronze.

China's last leg swimmer Yu Yang chased down Cooke to claim third place.

It followed the failure of Gregor Tait and James Goddard to qualify for the 200m backstroke final.

Tait finished just one place and 0.06seconds outside of the eight qualifiers with a time of one minute 58.97secs.

Goddard, who finished fourth in the Olympic Games in Athens, was down in 11th in 1:59.16, 2.58secs behind fastest qualifier Aaron Piersol of the USA.

We did our best in the relay and I think we all produced a magnificent job Caitlin McClatchey

Tait said: "I thought it would be enough. I am still trying to get over the fact I have missed out on the final again. It's not a nice pill to swallow."

Goddard added: "I felt heavy this morning - I think it was a bit too excited. It was not a terrible time."

McClatchey's 400m freestyle bronze is the only swimming success for Team GB so far in Montreal.

She recorded the quickest time of her team-mates (1:58.26) in the relay as she made up strokes on the American and Australian teams after a powerful first leg from Marshall (1:59.47).

Jackson struggled towards the end of her third leg and was caught by the Chinese team, and Yu Yang made light work of Cooke to claim the final podium place.

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"I know we will go from strength to strength and I think we can catch both the Australians and the Americans," said McClatchey.