Jul 29, 2009, 19:20 GMT
Rome - World records continued to tumble on Wednesday at the world swimming championships in Rome as swimmers managed to break six in the eight events of the evening.
American superstar Michael Phelps bounced back from defeat on Tuesday to win the men's 200m butterfly in world record time, while local hero Federica Pellegrini took gold with a world record in the women's 200m freestyle.
South African Cameron Van den Burgh won gold in the men's 50m breaststroke, while the semi-finals in the women's 50m backstroke saw two world records.
Chinese swimmer Zhang Lin slashed the men's 800m record held by Australian Grant Hackett. The 22-year-old swam an astonishing 7:32.12, to beat the Australian's time of 7:38.65.
Zhang was hard pushed until the final 50 metres by Oussama Mellouli, but the Tunisian could do nothing as Zhang upped the pace on the final 50 metres.
The African took the silver medal in 7:35.27, while Canadian Ryan Cochrane finished third in 7:41.92.
Phelps, who was beaten by Germany's Paul Biedermann in the 200m freestyle Tuesday, took gold in the 200m butterfly in a time of one minute 51:51 seconds, beating his own record of 1:52.03.
Phelps, who swam in short pants, rather than the bodysuits which most other swimmers seem to prefer, celebrated by extending his right arm into the air after touching.
He said that he did not want to make a statement about the controversial high-tech performance-enhancing bodysuits by not wearing one.
'I warmed-up in a bodysuit, but it felt too tight, so I switched into a different suit,' he explained.
The silver medal went to Poland's Pawel Korzeniowski, who was 1.72 seconds off the pace. The bronze medal went to Japan's Takeshi Matsuda.
Pellegrini was a very popular winner, as she annihilated the rest of the field, taking gold in the 200m freestyle in 1:52.98 - nearly two seconds faster than second-placed Allison Schmitt from America, who finished in a time of 1:54.96.
Schmitt's compatriot Dana Vollmer was third in a time of 1:55.64.
'I just can't get this smile off my face,' were Van den Burgh's words as he came out of the water after taking seven hundredths of a second off his own world record in the 50m breaststroke.
He finished in a time of 26.67, beating Brazilian Felipe Franca Silva by nine hundredth. The bronze medal went to American Mark Gangloff in 26.86.
In the women's 50m backstroke semi-finals the world record was broken twice in the space of two heats.
Germany's world record holder Daniela Simulski, who swam a 27.61 second in the German championships in June, lowered that mark to 27.39 in winning her heat, but her new record stood just one heat, as Russian Anastasia Zueva managed to shave one hundredth of a second off the German's time in the very next heat to qualify for the final with the fastest time.
Free-spirited American swimmer Ryan Lochte and Hungarian Laszlo Cseh were the fastest swimmers in the semi-finals of the men's 200m individual medley as they finished in 1:55.18.
Australian Leith Brodie had the third-fastest time 1.57 seconds off the pace, while Briton James Goddard was fourth-fastest.
France's Alain Bernard led the field into the men's 100m freestyle with a time of 47.27, beating Brazilian Cesar Cielo Filho, who was .21 seconds slower.
Sweden's Stefan Nystrand had the third-fastest time.
In the semi-finals of the women's 200m butterfly Hungarian Katinka Hosszu had the fastest time in 2:04.27, beating world record holder Mary Descenza, who finished in a time of 2:04.27.
The third-fastest time belonged to Australian Jessicah Schipper, who had a 2:04.87.
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