SWIMMING: London Olympic superstar Alicia Coutts and British-born Australian Ellen Gandy have stolen the limelight at the Australian short course championships in Sydney over the weekend.

Coutts set a new Commonwealth and Australian record in the women's 100m individual medley on Saturday.

The five-time Olympic medallist won her fourth gold at the meet when she recorded a time of 57.71sec for an emphatic victory ahead of defending champion Kotuku Ngawati (1:00.35) and Samantha Wilkins (1:00.67).

Coutts was only a quarter of a second off the world record of 57.45 recently set by Hungarian Katinka Hossuzu.

She broke the previous best by an Australian of 58.50 set by Emily Seebohm in a 'supersuit' in 2009.

"I did a few time trials in training before worlds (world championships in Barcelona), and went 58.4 and 58.3, so I knew that I could go under the Commonwealth record," Coutts said.

"But I didn't think I could go that fast."

As she did the previous night in backing up to bag double gold, Coutts stepped up to triumph in the 50m freestyle final.

The 26-year-old powered home in 24.56 to pip Melissa Mitchell (24.64) and Holly Barrett (24.69).

London Olympian Melanie Schlanger (24.73) finished just outside the medals in her comeback from injury.

On the final day of competition, Coutts capped a terrific week with her fifth gold medal of the meet, but her achievements were briefly overshadowed by the story of Sunday's other big winner.

English-born Gandy swam for Great Britain at last year's London Olympics and had to sit out of international competition for a year in order to qualify for Australia.

But after missing this year's FINA World Championships in Barcelona she made an immediate impact, winning the race in a time of 2:02.88 - taking 0.35 of a second off Jessicah Schipper's previous Australian best, and 0.32 of a second off the Commonwealth record help by Canadian Audrey Lacroix.

"I was so close to it at the World Cups and I really wanted to get it at the second World Cup in Berlin but just missed out, so I'm really happy that I've been able to make my mark on the Australian record," Gandy said.

"I've looked up to Jess Schipper for so long so to get her record and the Commonwealth record, just feels amazing."

The 22-year-old, who has trained in Australia since she was 15, admitted it had been an unusual year as she switched allegiances but said it felt like the right decision.

"It's been a really strange year having 12 months of no international competition and watching the world championships was quite difficult not being able to participate, but I think it has really made me more hungry and I'm just so happy to be able to swim for Australia now," she said.

"Swimming for Australia (at the World Cups) didn't feel strange at all, and it felt like I should have been doing it years ago.

"It was just awesome being part of the team and everyone welcomed me, and it just felt like I'd been in the team forever."

Coutts took half a second off the previous 200 IM record set by Emily Seebohm this year, winning in a dominant time of 2:05.82, while Kenneth To successfully defended his 100m IM title.

AAP