The United States won the world 5-kilometer open water team title yesterday, narrowly edging out Australia in the first running of the event at the world championships.

The US team of Andrew Gemmell, Ashley Twichell and Sean Ryan clocked 57 minutes, 0.06 seconds for the two laps of the course at Jinshan Beach in Shanghai.

The event is raced as a mixed team time trial, with each team setting off at one-minute intervals. The last member to finish is recorded as the official finishing time with the fastest team to complete the course winning the gold.

Australia's Melissa Gorman, Ky Hurst and Rhys Mainstone finished in a time of 57:01.8, while Germany's Isabelle Haerle, Thomas Lurz and Jan Wolfgarten won bronze in 57:44.2.

The open water events continue today with the men's and women's 5K races and finish tomorrow with 25K marathons.