France staged a major upset in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay, snatching victory from the heavily-fancied Australians and a USA team that boasted the combined might Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps.

Although the event had been billed as a clash between the defending world champions,Australia, and the USA, the French quartet of Amaury Leveaux, Fabien Gilot, Clement Lefert and Yannick Agnel surged past their competitors, leaving the USA second, Russia third and the Australians medal-less in fourth.

France clocked 3min 9.93sec and the USA settled for silver in 3:10.38. Russia took bronze in 3:11.41. The victory was sweet revenge for the French, who lost a close race to the Americans in Beijing four years ago.

The USA team – which also included Nathan Adrian and Cullen Jones – led after Phelps carved out a commanding lead, but things changed in the final leg when Agnel began closing in on Lochte, and eventually passed him in the last 50m to stun the crowd and the bookmakers.

The upset came despite the USA's efforts to win by pulling out two biggest guns in its Swimming arsenal. Although neither Phelps nor Lochte swam the event at the US Olympic trials or in Sunday morning's heats, the American coaches named the pair in their lineup alongside Adrian and Jones. Jimmy Feigen, Matt Grevers, Ricky Berens and the 2008 Olympic star Jason Lezak competed in the morning preliminaries, posting the second-fastest time behind the Australians. The coaches decided on an entirely new lineup for the final, sending out Adrian on the first leg, followed by Phelps and Jones, with Lochte going on the anchor leg.

Australia– who had three of the four members from the 2011 world championship team in Shanghai, James "The Missile" Magnussen, Matt Targent and Eamon Sullivan – proved unable to deliver, even with the help of James "The Rocket" Roberts going against Lochte in the final spot.

If there was any consolation for the Americans, the event did grant Phelps a first medal of the Games following his trouncing on Saturday night at the hands of Lochte in the 400m individual medley. "The thing about the relay is that it's the whole race," Phelps said. "At least I'm in a medal today."

Elsewhere, Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa set a new men's 100m breaststroke world record of 58.46 second, beating the USA's Brendan Hansen and Australia's Christian Sprenger.

The race was made more poignant by the absence of Alexander Dale Oen, the late and much-loved Norwegian swimmer who had captivated his fellow athletes and the wider world with his prowess, wide grin and dignified response to the massacre of 77 of his compatriots by Anders Behring Breivik in July 2011.

Dale Oen, who was only 26 when he died suddenly in April from heart disease, had been Norway's great hope for Swimming gold at London 2012.

He won his country's first Olympic Swimming medal in 2008 when he took silver in the 100m breaststroke in Beijing and became a national hero after winning the same event at the world championships in 2011, just three days after Norway was hit by Breivik's atrocity.

The Bergen swimmer dedicated his victory to those who had died, weeping on the podium and pointing to the flag on his swim cap asNorway's national anthem played. Standing on the podium with the gold medal around his neck, Van der Burgh appeared to pay tribute to his late friend by smiling and pointing heavenwards.