BROOKE'S LOOK AT ROMA 09 DAY TWO
July 28: Australia shone in day two finals at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Rome as Aussie breaststroker Brenton Rickard took Australia's first gold. BROOKE HANSON reports ...
Day two saw another five-world records fall, taking the world record tally in just two days of competition to 11.
After a silver-lined career at an international level, Australian Brenton Rickard finally had his time in the sun.
In the first event of the finals session, Rickard blew the field away, winning his first world championship in a new world record time in the men's 100m breaststroke.
His proud parents Collette and Mark, who head up the POOS (Parents Of Our Swimmers) association were cheering him on in the stands with the rest of the Australian parents and supporters.
No one deserves it more than Rickard, who won the gold medal from lucky lane six in a time of 58.58 ahead of Hugues Duboscq (58.64) of France and Cameron van der Burgh 58.95 of South Africa.
Rickard turned fifth at the 50m turn then exploded off the wall to swim the most amazing second 50 of his career. His touch on the wall won him the gold medal and even he looked shocked to see that he had broken the world record.
He raced in a Jaked suit after coming into the meet with the 31st fastest time of the year because he decided not to race in a new-style suit in the lead-up to the championships.
Rickard won a silver medal in the 200m breaststroke and finished fifth in the 100m breaststroke at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and came into this meet saying he had a great chance of winning gold.
Today was Rickard's day, as he became the first Australian male in the history of the World Swimming Championships to win the gold medal in the 100m breaststroke.
The Aussie team celebrated his victory from the stands and joined him during his medal presentation by singing the national anthem with pride as his long time-coach Vince Raleigh couldn't wipe the smile off his face.
Rickard has been a team leader for the Telstra Dolphins over the past six years and it was wonderful to see him win Australia's first gold medal in the pool.
He was joined on the podium by Aussie team mates Matt Targett, Jessicah Schipper and Stephanie Rice who all won silver medals on night two.
The Australian medal tally now stands at one gold, three silver and one bronze.
World records to fall on day two included:
Men's 100m breaststroke
Brenton Rickard AUS 58.58 Jaked
Women's 200m Individual Medley
Ariana Kukors USA 2.06.15 Jaked
Women's 100m butterfly
Sarah Sjostrom SWE 56.06 Arena
Women's 100m backstroke
Anastasia Zueva RUS 58.48 Arena
Women's 100m Breaststroke
Rebecca Soni USA 1.04.84 Arena