ROME — Michael Phelps has earned his third gold medal of the world championships and the United States has set the 35th world record in Rome, winning the 800-meter freestyle relay.

Phelps swam the leadoff leg and was again bested by Germany's Paul Biedermann, who handed off with more than a 1½ second lead over the American star.

But the U.S. has the deeper team. Ricky Berens seized the lead on the second 200, David Walters maintained the margin and Ryan Lochte held off Russia's Alexander Sukhorukov on the sprint to the wall, touching in 6 minutes, 58.55 seconds — a hundredth of a second ahead of the U.S. record set in Beijing.

Russia took the silver and Australia claimed the bronze.