Australian Eamon Sullivan broke the world record in the men's
50m freestyle at the New South Wales swimming championships in
Sydney on Sunday.
Sullivan clocked 21.56 seconds to chop 0.08 seconds off Russian
Alexander Popov's mark of 21.64 seconds set up in 2000.
His winning mark also bettered half a second off his personal
best fro Sullivan, who finished third in the 100m and fifth in the
50m freestyle at last year's world championships in Melbourne.
"I just surprised myself," he said. "I felt really, really good
in the warm-up and working towards getting under 22 for the first
time."
The 22-year-old shook off a series of injuries before his
breakthrough meet at the national championships 14 months ago where
he captured the 50m national record in Brisbane.
It was the first swimming world record by an Australian men
swimmer in an Olympic event since Ian Thorpe in the 400m freestyle
at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games.
The 50m event was introduced into the Olympic program in Seoul
in 1988.
(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2008)