(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-18 15:07

NEW YORK - American Natalie Coughlin surprised herself by breaking her own 100 metres backstroke world record on Sunday, clocking 59.21 seconds in the preliminaries of the Missouri Grand Prix.

Natalie Coughlin, pictured in 2007, broke the women's 100m backstroke world record Sunday, clocking 59.21sec in preliminaries at the Grand Prix of Missouri long course swimming meeting. [Agencies]

Coughlin, the reigning Olympic champion, took more than two tenths of a second off the previous mark of 59.44 seconds set at the world championships in Melbourne last year.

"If you could see my face, I was slightly shocked," Coughlin told reporters. "It was a strange race. I really didn't expect it."

Coughlin was more than four tenths of a second behind world record pace at the halfway stage but used a strong second leg to set the second world record of the meet.

Zimbabwe's Kristy Coventry shattered the 200 backstroke record on Saturday. Coventry was second to Coughlin in the 100 backstroke preliminaries, clocking 59.61 seconds.

The finals of the 100 backstroke are scheduled for Monday morning, with organisers following the Beijing Olympics programme of evening preliminaries and morning finals.

Coughlin's world record was the third this weekend globally after Australia's Eamon Sullivan broke Alexander Popov's eight-year-old mark for 50 freestyle on Sunday in Sydney to inherit the title as the fastest swimmer in history.