Former Glenhaven resident and former Galston High student Lara Davenport is a proud recipient of an Olympic gold medal for the women's 4 x 200 metres freestyle relay.

Although she didn't swim in the finals on Thursday the Australian team broke a world record the first-time Olympian swam in the heats on Wednesday night. Davenport had an outstanding heat swim and finished the fastest in her team with 1:57.94 seconds.

Castle Hill swimmer Grant Brits received the greatest birthday gift of all at the Games, winning his first Olympic medal at his first Games.

Brits, who celebrated his 21st birthday on Monday, August 11, was a member of the Australian men's 4 x 200 metres freestyle relay bronze medal-winning team, which also included Patrick Murphy, Grant Hackett and Nick Ffrost.

Brits' impressive swim of 1:46.84 seconds in the heats on Tuesday night, booked him a spot in the final team selection. Australia, which finished third in the heat, qualified sixth fastest for the final.

The former Oakhill College student continued his impressive form in the finals, and swimming the third leg of the relay in 1:47 seconds, he managed to get Australia in second position. Overall, Australia finished in 7:04.98 seconds.

Commenting after the race with the men's team, Brits said he was honoured to be a part of the Aussie team.

``Last night [after the heats], I didn't even know if I was going to be in this [the finals], so to be in there with these boys was just amazing,'' Brits said.

``It's indescribable and swimming along [with] Grant Hackett is just awesome.''

Noticeably absent from the blocks was Kellyville swimmer Kenrick Monk. He was scheduled to race in the final but his disappointing heat swim in the men's 200 metres freestyle last week put him out of selection for both the 4 x 100 metres and 4 x 200 metres relay heats and final races.

National swimming head coach Alan Thompson told the Sydney Morning Herald that dropping Monk who is one of Australia's strongest 200 metres swimmers from the 4 x 200 metres relay, was one of the hardest decisions he had to make. ``We had to go with the team that we thought would give us the best result,'' Thompson said.

``You saw how close it was.''

Monk's coach Tony Shaw, who also coaches Grant Brits, said Monk had been ``off the boil'' in his 200 metre swim and he could tell moments before the race that he had ``tightened up'' and was ``overawed''.