Australian Stubblety-Cook smashes 200m breaststroke world record

Olympic 200m breaststroke champion Zac Stubblety-Cook smashed the world record on Thursday at the Australian championships, touching in 2mins 05.95secs to send a warning for the world championships and Commonwealth Games.

The 23-year-old was under the record pace for the entire race to shatter the 2:06.12 mark set by Russia's Anton Chupkov in 2019.

"I was just trying to swim fast - I didn't think that fast. I can't really believe it to be honest, but I'm very happy with that," he said poolside in Adelaide.

"Last year I put everything in and got that result (Olympic gold), but this year there's a lot less pressure and obviously that pressure is nice not to have, and I'm just stoked."

Stubblety-Cook swam a blistering race to stun the field and win gold in Tokyo last year in a new Olympic record time of 2min 06.38sec ahead of Dutch ace Arno Kamminga.

The Australian will now head to the worlds in Budapest next month and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in July as red-hot favourite.

"The end goal is Paris (2024 Olympics) and whatever happens in between I'm just going to enjoy my swimming," he said.

Asked if it was the perfect race, he replied: "I think there's always room to improve."

Stubblety-Cook became the only Australian man to hold a current long-course world record. Kaylee McKeown owns the women's 100m backstroke world record.

Tokyo sensation McKeown, who won the Olympic backstroke double, also fired a warning to her rivals with the fastest time of the year in the 400m medley.

She has added the format this year after dropping it for the Olympics and touched in 4:31.74, more than three seconds quicker than Canada's Summer Mcintosh.

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