The Olympic 400m freestyle champion and world record holder admitted that she thought something was up in the warm-up and also had a dig at her coach Philippe Lucas.

She suggested that he had forced her to swim too much prior to the championships, in which she holds the 100m backstroke and 400m freestyle titles.

"It was my first race," she said. "I didn't know how to swim it.

"In the warm-up I didn't feel good at all. Maybe I have done too much swimming."

However Lucas shot back at her and even hinted that another below par performance in the 800m medley could see her withdraw from her other events.

"I am the coach and I know what I am doing," he said.

"We have lost the first leg 5-0. If she swims like that in the 800m medley (on Tuesday) then we will pack our bags."

With no Manaudou in the final the glory went to 19-year-old Italian Alessia Filippi.

Italy had another reason to celebrate as their men's 4x100m medley relay romped home ahead of Russia and France, inspired by a superb leg from their world 100m freestyle champion Filippo Magnini.

"I know that I have a very quick finish," said Magnini.

"We really wanted this gold medal and we have won it.

"This is a good start for me at the championships," added Magnini, who is keen to swim under 48sec in the 100m freestyle where he takes on The Netherlands world record holder Pieter Van den Hoogenband.

While the Italians won their relay the German women light up the pool as their 4x100m freestyle relay team broke the world record.

The Germans timed 3minutes 35.22seconds as they took the title, breaking the previous mark of 3:35.94 set by the Australians on August 14 2004 at the Olympics.