Stubblety-Cook sets world record in 200 breaststroke

Adelaide: Olympic champion Zac Stubblety-Cook set a world record in the men's 200-meter breaststroke at the Australian swimming championships on Thursday.

Stubblety-Cook finished in 2 minutes, 05.95 seconds in the final to improve on the previous mark of 2:06.12 set by Russian swimmer Anton Chupkov at the 2019 world championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

"It's a bit surreal, to be perfectly honest. It doesn't feel real," Stubblety-Cook said. "It will probably sink in over the next few days.

I was obviously hoping to swim fast and hoping to swim close to my best but that is just something else." The 23-year-old Stubblety-Cook set an Olympic record in winning gold at last year's Tokyo Games.