Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder Brenton Rickard has claimed his first gold medal at the FINA World Championships, winning the 100-metre men’s breaststroke final in a new world record time.

Rickard previously won silver at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, silver at the 2007 world titles in Melbourne and silver at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Today’s gold medal win lowers the previous world record mark of Japanese Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima by 0.33 seconds, set at the Beijing Olympics.

Incredibly, Rickard turned at the 50-metre mark in fifth place, but surged ahead and led down the final leg to finish ahead of Frenchman Hugues Duboscq (58.64 seconds) and South African Cameron van der Burgh (58.95 seconds).

Rickard was delighted to touch the wall first.

‘To finally win a gold medal at a major swim meet is so satisfying,’ Rickard said.

‘My preparation for these world championships had been so good, I’ve actually been swimming quick all week.

‘Times don’t really matter; people win races so to come out on top is one of the most memorable moments of my career.’

Rickard’s gold medal victory is Australia’s first at the FINA World Championships in Rome, which runs until 2 August.