Records tumble at world swimming championship

New Delhi: Six world records tumbled at the World Swimming championship in Rome.

Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom bettered the world record she set on Sunday to grab gold in the women's 100 metres butterfly final at the world swimming championships on Monday. The 15-year-old surged home in 56.06 seconds, ahead of second-placed Jessicah Schipper of Australia and bronze medallist Jiao Liuyang of China.

Australia's Brenton Rickard broke the world record to win the men's 100 metres breaststroke final at the world swimming championships on Monday. Rickard swam 58.58 seconds with France's Hugues Duboscq second and Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa taking bronze.

Germany's Paul Biedermann, ripped up Ian Thorpe's 400 freestyle world record by a hundredth of a second to win gold on Sunday.

In the women's 200m individual medley, America's Ariana Kukors swimming in one of the high-tech Jaked bodysuits - that will be illegal starting in 2010 - shattered the previous record set by Australian Stephanie Rice in Beijing. The 20-year-old won the race in a time of 2 minutes 07.03 seconds with the Aussie Rice having to settle for second.

Spain's Aschwin Wildeboer set a championship record of 52.93 seconds to top the time sheets with Japan's Ryosuke Irie clocking 53 and American Peirsol, Junya Koga and Briton Liam Tancock swimming 53.08.

A championship record then melted in the warm waters of the Foro Italico's outdoor pool when America's Rebecca Soni bagged 1 minute 5.66 in the women's 100 breaststroke preliminaries while Dane Lotte Friis was quickest in the 1,500 freestyle heats.