JAUKOVIC MAINTAINS UNBEATEN WORLD CUP RECORD IN BERLIN

BERLIN, November 16: Sydney University student Matt Jaukovic maintained his unbeaten record in the men's 50 metres butterfly and gave his own world record a real shake on the opening night of the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup in Berlin overnight....IAN HANSON reports.

Jaukovic, the 22-year-old find of this lucrative series, clocked a time of 22.58 - just 0.08 outside his own world mark.

It was his fifth World Cup win over the distance and his eighth Series win, with three wins in the 100m, since his world record breaking swim in Sydney last month.

The NSWIS scholarship holder has since chalked up wins in the 50m in Sydney, Singapore, Moscow, Stockholm and now Berlin and 100m wins in Sydney, Singapore and Moscow - taking his winnings to over $US22,000.00.

Jaukovic will be hoping to extend his earnings when he lines up in the 100 metres final tonight, looking for Series win number nine. 

For Jaukovic it was the third best men's performance of the day behind South Africa's Cameron van der Burgh (26.05 in the 50m breaststroke) and American Peter Marshall (49.63 WR in the 100m backstroke).

In the women's events, Sarah Katsoulis, growing in confidence every time she swims, clocked the third best performance overall when she extended her Series titles to five, clocking 1:05.07 to win the 100m breaststroke. Her team mate Sally Foster was third in 1:07.33.

In other events, Marieke Guehrer and Therese Alshammar continued their duelling in the 50m freestyle with the 31-year-old Swede clocking 24.16 to edge out Guehrer (24.42) in the 50m freestyle final.

The pair will face off tonight in the last event of the Series - the women's 50m butterfly, with the winner walking away with the $US100,000.00 first prize. Second will receive $US50,000 and third $US30,000.

Christian Sprenger, who like Guehrer has contested every round of the Series, maintained his medal-winning form, finishing third to the very in-form van der Burgh in the 50m breaststroke in 27.04 and second in the 200m breaststroke to the Ukraine's Igor Borysik in 2:06.73.

Other Australian medallists on the opening night were: Robert Hurley (bronze to Marshall in the 100m backstroke in 50.70) and Chris Wright (silver in the 200m butterfly to Nikolay Skvortsov).