CANBERRA, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Australian swimmer Izaac Stubblety-Cook has smashed the men's 200-meter breaststroke world record at the national championships.
Stubblety-Cook, 23, on Thursday night won the 200m breaststroke final at the Australian Swimming Championships in Adelaide with a time of 2:05.95, beating Russian Anton Chupkov's world record by 0.17 seconds, according to Swimming Australia.
It makes Stubblety-Cook the first man in history to break the 2:06 barrier in the event.
The time was 0.43 seconds faster than the 2:06.38 Stubblety-Cook swam to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
"I always had the goal in the back of my mind to be the first guy to go 2:05 and you don't get many opportunities and tonight was one of them," he said after the race, according to The Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"It's a bit surreal, to be perfectly honest."
Stubblety-Cook trailed Matthew Wilson after 100 meters but powered home to claim victory by more than four seconds.
Both Stubblety-Cook and Wilson, who finished second, qualified for the World Championships, which begin in Budapest in June, and July's Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Earlier on Thursday, 2016 Olympic freestyle gold medalist Kyle Chalmers revealed he is considering swimming at the World Championships.
Chalmers won the 50m butterfly and came second in the 100m at the national championships but had previously ruled out competing in Budapest.
However, on Thursday he said his form had surprised him.
"Personally I think [swimming at the World Championships] is going to be the best thing for me moving forward because I know if my coach, my squad go to Europe, I'll be left here by myself training by myself," Chalmers said. ■
