Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) athlete Matthew Cowdrey has won gold with a superb performance in the men’s 50-metre freestyle event (S9 classification) achieving Australia’s first world record in the Commonwealth Games swimming program at the Dr S. P. M Aquatics Centre in Delhi.

Cowdrey cruised to victory in a world record time of 25.33 seconds, finishing 1.37 seconds ahead of England’s Simon Miller in second place.

Australian Paralympic Committee Chief Executive Jason Hellwig paid tribute to Cowdrey’s outstanding achievement.

‘It was an outstanding swim from Matt. To win Australia’s first male individual gold medal and to do it in world record time is a tremendous achievement,’ Hellwig said.

In other strong results for Australian swimmers, Benjamin Austin and Blake Cochrane finished in fourth and fifth place respectively.

Since joining the AIS/Paralympic High Performance Swim program in February this year, Cowdrey has continued to produce strong performances in the 50-metres freestyle, and eclipsed  his world record of 25.34 seconds from the Beijing Paralympic Games last night.

He won six gold medals at the IPC Swimming World Championships in August.

21-year-old Cowdrey moved to the AIS from Adelaide to focus on preparation for the Commonwealth Games and the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Cowdrey trains under AIS/Paralympic High Performance Swim program head coach Graeme Carroll in Canberra, providing access to the Institute’s leading sports science expertise and state-of-the-art training facilities.