A formidable United States spearheaded by an emotional Caeleb Dressel stormed to the men’s 4x100m Olympic freestyle relay title on Saturday for the country’s first gold in Paris. The quartet of Jack Alexy, Chris Guiliano, Hunter Armstrong and Dressel came home in 3min 09.28sec with Australia taking silver in 3:10.35 and Italy bronze in 3:10.70. The Americans, who were reigning champions, had their work cut out after the opening leg with Chinese 100m world record holder Pan Zhanle putting in a scorching two laps. But the US hauled themselves back into contention with Dressel powering them to the finish line. Kyle Chalmers put in a cracking final leg to hand Australia silver, with his 46.59 the fastest split of any swimmer. China, who are competing under a doping cloud, finished out of the medals in fourth. The United States have long dominated the event, winning 10 of the 14 times it has been on the Olympic programme before Paris. For Dressel, 27, it was his eighth gold medal from three Olympics, and he was tearful in the celebrations.