Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom broke the women's 100m butterfly world record in Rome on Sunday with a time of 56.44sec in the semifinals at the World Championships.
The previous world record of 56.61sec was set by Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands on September 17, 2000 at the Sydney Olympics.
De Bruijn's mark was one of two women's records still on the books that dated back to before 2006.
The oldest women's record standing is the 800m freestyle, set by American Janet Evans on August 20, 1989.
Sjostrom's record was the first of what was expected to be many at the 2009 World Championships, the last world meet before the latest generation of high-tech swimsuits is banned in 2010.
Sjostrom led the way into Monday's final ahead of Australian Jessicah Schipper, who clocked 57.08, and American Dana Vollmer, who finished in 57.19.