BEIJING, August 10, 2008 (AFP) - Australian Stephanie Rice's daring race strategy reaped an Olympic gold medal and reclaimed the world record with a magnificent victory in the women's 400-metres individual medley at the Beijing Games on Sunday.

The 20-year-old pool glamour girl went out hard and was almost four seconds under the world record at the halfway split before she staved off a last lap surge from Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry.

Her time of four minutes 29.45 seconds sliced 1.67 seconds off the record she reclaimed from her American rival Katie Hoff set at the US Trials on June 29.

'I knew I had to go out hard in the first 200m because butterfly and backstroke are my best strokes,' said Rice, who was cheered on by the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in the stands at the Water Cube.

'I knew Hoff is an amazing breaststroker, so I got a lot of confidence turning at the end of the breaststroke knowing I was in the lead.

'I knew that someone (Coventry) was there, and I really had to close my eyes and concentrate on that freestyle and think about all the hard training I've done and just give it my all.'

Coventry, swimming in lane one, finished with silver in an African record time of 4:29.89 with Hoff third in 4:31.77.

Rice now holds both 200/400m medley world records and her victory was the perfect tonic for Australia's hopes of finishing as the leading women's swim team ahead of the Americans.

Rice is the pin-up girl of Australian swimming and created headlines just before the Games when she announced she had split up with boyfriend and Olympic teammate Eamon Sullivan to concentrate on winning gold in Beijing.

'It's awesome, I'm still in shock,' Rice said after her triumph.

'It's been a long process to get to the Olympic Games. Just to get here itself is a great experience.'

Rice has rocketed to Olympic stardom after taking bronze in both the 200 and 400m medley events at last year's world championships in Melbourne.

She had set the world record in the 400m medley at the Australian trials last March, only for Hoff to regain it three months later.

'The world record at the trials was a shock for me, and I really came into Olympics with a lot more confidence than the trials,' she said.

'It was a new race for me and I think you really had to go into it with a new mindset.'