ROME - Australia’s Brenton Rickard has broken the 100 metres breaststroke world record, setting a time of 58.58s at the World Championships in Rome on Monday.

Rickard shaved 0.33 seconds off the previous mark set by Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima in Beijing last year.

World record evolution (Time, Name/Nationality, Place, Date):
58.58 Brenton Rickard AUS Rome 27.07.09
58.91 Kosuke Kitajima JPN Beijing 11.08.08
59.13 Brendan Hansen USA Irvine 01.08.06
59.30 Brendan Hansen USA Long Beach 08.07.04
59.78 kosuke Kitajima JPN Barcelona 21.07.03
59.94 Roman Sloudnov RUS Fukuoka 23.07.01
59.97 Roman Sloudnov RUS Moscow 29.06.01
1:00.26 Roman Sloudnov RUS Moscow 28.06.01

Second placed Hugues Duboscq has improved his personal best winnign silver in a new European record of 58.64.

He set the previous mark in yesterday’s qualification heats.

European record evolution (Time, Name/Nationality, Place, Date):
58.64 Hugues Duboscq FRA Rome 27.07.09
59.01 Hugues Duboscq FRA Rome 26.07.09
59.16 Alexander Dale Oen NOR Beijing 10.08.08
59.41 Alexander Dale Oen NOR Beijing 09.08.08
59.76 Alexander Dale Oen NOR Eindhoven 19.03.08
59.94 Roman Sludnov RUS Fukuoka 23.07.01