Steffen finally won the one medal that has thus far eluded her when she took home the gold in the women's 100m freestyle. She broke a world record for the second time in five days.

The 25-year-old native of the town of Schwedt won the gold in a time of 55.07, beating the previous best mark of 52.22, which she set on July 26 as the opening swimmer of the German women's 4x100m freestyle relay swimmer.

"I am really, really happy. Now anything can happen and I can accept it," said Steffen as hugged members of the German technical staff.

The 2007 world champion Libby Trickett of Australia, who had to settle for silver behind Steffen at the Beijing Olympics, had the lead at the turn, but she couldn't hang on.

Steffen muscled past her en route to gold, and 19-year-old Briton Fran Halsall also got by her to take second in 52.87 leaving Trickett the bronze in 52.93.

"I was hoping to go a little bit faster," said Trickett. "It's a little bit disappointing, but you can't complain about being third in the world. It was a good swim."

In the men's events, Serbia's Milorad Cavic had a huge victory in the world championships' 100m butterfly semi-finals, breaking Michael Phelps's world record and nearly smashing the 50-second barrier.

Cavic will take the upper hand into the final against Phelps, where he'll try to even the scoreboard after Phelps out-touched him by one one-hundredth of a second in the Beijing Olympic final.

It has been a very exciting championship as Cavic's was just one of six world records on the night, taking the total to 35 during the meet, with two days still to go.

av/dpa/AFP
Editor: Kyle James