Trickett breaks another record in Sydney

Libby Trickett confirmed her status as the fastest woman in water when she broke the 50 metres freestyle world record on the final night of the Australian Olympic Games trials yesterday.

Trickett (nee Lenton), stormed down one lap of Sydney's International Aquatic Centre in 23.97 seconds to slice 0.12 off the previous record of 24.09 set five days ago by Marlene Veldhuis, of the Netherlands, at the European Championships in Eindhoven.

Trickett, who won five gold medals at last year's World Championships, also broke the 100 freestyle world record on Thursday and won the 100 butterfly earlier in the week to qualify for six events in Beijing.

"I never really thought I could go this fast before," the 23-year-old said.

Cate Campbell, 15, finished second in 24.38 to book her second individual swim in China after finishing runner-up to Trickett in the 100 and boost Australia's chances of winning the three women's relays.

"To be honest I really thought the 50 world record was going to be out of my reach for a lot longer," Trickett told reporters.

"It has always been a bit of a target and it has always seemed such a distant time that I never really thought I could get there."

Grant Hackett also won the 1,500 freestyle final yesterday to remain on course to become the first male swimmer to win the same individual event at three Olympics.

The 27-year-old led from start to finish to claim his 11th national 1,500 title in 14 minutes 48.65 seconds, more than 14 seconds outside the world record he set seven years ago, but his fastest time in nearly three years since he underwent shoulder surgery.

Craig Stevens, who famously gave up his spot to Ian Thorpe in the 400 at Athens in 2004, finished second in 14:53.18.

"That's the first step out of the way," Hackett said.

"Now I'm really looking forward to putting my head down and doing some hard training."

Trickett's world record was the seventh in as many days at the Australian trials, two more than the total at last week's European Championships.

Eamon Sullivan twice broke the men's 50, his girlfriend Stephanie Rice broke the 200 and 400 individual medley records and Sophie Edington and Emily Seebohm took turns in breaking the 50 backstroke record, which is a non-Olympic event.