Australian Sullivan, Trickett set new swimming records

CANBERRA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Sprint stars Eamon Sullivan and Libby Trickett gave the ongoing Australian Olympic swimming trials a soar after reclaiming world records at Sydney on Thursday.

The 22-year-old Sullivan clocked 21.41 seconds in the heats to regain the 50 meters freestyle world record from Frenchman Alain Bernard, who set it last weekend at the European Championships in Eindhoven.

Sullivan's new mark lowered the former one by 0.09 seconds, while the Australian sensation, who missed twice to beat Bernard's100 meters record at the trials, said he could go even faster in Friday's final.

Trickett, formerly Lenton, hit the wall at 52.88 seconds in the women's 100 meters freestyle final to qualify for the Beijing Olympic Games and to pull 0.42 off German Britta Steffen's record set in August 2006.

In Thursday's other events, breaststroker Leisel Jones narrowly missed a record-breaking spree, timing 2:21.34 to win the women's 200 meters breaststroke. She holds the world record on 2:20.54.

Hayden Stoeckel broke the men's 200 meters backstroke Commonwealth record in winning his final, clocking 1:56.75, while Leith Brodie won the 200 meters individual medley in 1:59.90.

Till now, six world records have been set at the Australian trials with two days left.