SHANGHAI - Natalia Ishchenko won her fourth gold medal of the world swimming championships on Thursday as Russia continued their domination of the synchronised swimming in Shanghai with victory in the free combination event.

Russia's Natalia Ishchenko performs during the synchronised swimming solo final at the 14th FINA World Championships in Shanghai July 20, 2011.  [Photo/Agencies]

Ishchenko, who had already won the solo technical and free golds and combined with Svetlana Romashina to win the duet technical, helped the Russians to a score of 98.470 points to give their country their fifth synchronised swimming title in the main indoor pool at the Oriental Sports Centre.

The 25-year-old Ishchenko has now won 14 world championships gold medals in her storied career. She can add to her total on Friday having qualified for the duet free final with Romashina, who also was in the gold-medal winning team on Thursday.

China won the silver on 96.360 points while Canada, the last team to perform, took bronze after scoring 96.150 and breaking up the Russia-China-Spain triumvirate which had been the only countries on the podium in the four previous finals.