Rice breaks world record again at Australia's Olympic swimming trials

CANBERRA, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Australia's teenage sensation Stephanie Rice broke a swimming world record for the second time in four days here on Tuesday after winning a medley double at the national Olympic trials in Sydney.

The 19-year-old, who smashed the 400 meters individual medley mark on the opening night of the meet last Saturday, erased swimming's second oldest long course world record after clocking two minutes 8.92 seconds in the women's 200m individual medley.

She sliced 0.80 seconds off the previous world record set by China's Wu Yanyan in Shanghai in 1997.

"It's beyond comprehension. The 200 individual medley world record has stood for a long, long time," Rice said. "It's beyond my expectations."

In an extraordinary development over the last 12 months Rice carved 2.5 seconds off her previous best time set at last year's Melbourne world championships.

Her boyfriend, Eamon Sullivan, came within 0.05 seconds of Frenchman Alain Bernard's new world 100 meters freestyle mark in his semifinal Tuesday and joined Bronte Barratt (200 meters freestyle) and Nick D'Arcy (200 meters butterfly) in setting new Commonwealth records.

Sullivan, who will attend Wednesday's 100 meters final at the trials, clocked 47.55 seconds, a time that up until three days ago would have been a new world mark, as Bernard swam 47.50 seconds at the European Championships in Eindhoven over the weekend.