MOSCOW, April 5: Sweden shattered the world short-course record for the women’s 4x100 metres medley relay at the world short-course swimming championships on Friday.

Therese Alshammar, Emma Igelstrom, Anna-Karin Kammerling and Johanna Sjoberg clocked three minutes 55.78 seconds to beat the mark of 3:57.46 by an American quartet from the University of Georgia in Indianapolis on March 16, 2000.

Alshammar had won the 100 metres freestyle gold and Kammerling the 50 metres butterfly earlier in the session.

Haley Cope gave the U.S. the lead on the opening backstroke leg but Luo Xuejuan edged China in front on the breaststroke.

Kammerling opened up a lead for Sweden on the butterfly and Sjoberg brought them home to win by more than a second from the Americans.

The U.S. took silver in 3:57.17 and China bronze in 3:57.29, both teams also inside the old record mark.

The American squad which held the previous record consisted of Courtney Shealy, Kristy Kowal, Keegan Walkley and Maritza Correia.

Earlier, Grant Hackett, recovering from illness, set his sights on a second gold medal when led qualifiers for the final of the 400 metres freestyle at the world short-course swimming championships on Friday.

But two newly-crowned Moscow champions — American Tom Wilkens and Ukrainian Oleg Lisogor — failed to qualify from their heats in the morning’s events after their triumphs of the previous evening.

Wilkens, who won the 400 metres individual medley, failed by just 0.01 seconds to match the time of eighth and slowest qualifier Dean Kent of New Zealand in the 200 medley in which he is world long-course silver medallist and Olympic bronze medallist.

Lisogor, winner of Thursday’s 100 metres breaststroke, also managed only ninth on aggregate, although the sprint specialist was more than half a second away from qualification in the 200 event.

Hackett pulled out of Wednesday’s 200 metres freestyle because he was still feeling the effects of a virus which struck last weekend, but he recovered sufficiently to anchor Australia to victory in the 4x200 metres freestyle relay final on Thursday.

Ian Thorpe, Australia’s Olympic and world long-course champion in the event, is one of the many top swimmers who are not contesting these championships.

Fellow Australians Geoff Huegill and Adam Pine, gold and silver medallists in Thursday evening’s 100 metres butterfly, set a brisk pace in the 50 butterfly with the two fastest qualifying times for the semifinals of 23.40 and 23.49.

Defending champion Mark Foster was extremely lucky to avoid elimination.

The 31-year-old Briton cruised home fourth in his heat in 24.25, which proved just enough for the 16th and slowest qualifying time.

China’s Chen Hua, who won the 800 freestyle title for the third time in succession on Thursday, led the way to the women’s 400 freestyle final in 4:06.42.

Finland’s Jani Sievinen was the fastest final qualifier for his 200 metres individual medley title defence, while American Lindsay Benko set a tremendous pace in the women’s 200 backstroke heats.—Reuters