Jess Schipper executed the perfect race to claim the 200m butterfly gold medal in world record time at the FINA world championships on Thursday as Australian teammate Christian Sprenger also etched his name into the record books.

Schipper hauled in Olympic champion Liu Zige over the final 50m to smash the record and collect gold in a time of two minutes 3.41 seconds.

It was a reversal of the result in Beijing last year when Schipper was swamped by a pair of Chinese swimmers and forced to settle for the bronze.

Liu finished with the silver in 2:03.90, while Hungary's Katinka Hosszu (2:04.28) collected bronze.

"Finally," said Schipper. "I definitely didn't expect to go that fast and I didn't feel that fast.

"I can't complain about anything in that race, especially coming out and doing such a big PB (personal best).

"The new plan I have in my races is I take it out a little bit slower so I have a lot of more of that energy to come home with. It seems to be working so I will stick with that I think."

Minutes later Schipper's Brisbane training partner Christian Sprenger carved his own piece of history, breaking the 200m breaststroke world record in the semi-finals with an identical race plan.

Sprenger motored pass Australia's 100m world champion Brenton Rickard to touch the wall in 2:07.31, shaving 0.20s off the existing world mark held by Japan's Kosuke Kitajima. Rickard qualified third fastest for Friday's final in 2:07.89.

"I could never dream of this. Whatever happens tomorrow night (in the final) happens. I'm swimming as best I can and that is all that matters," he said.

The Australians claimed two of the seven world records to fall on Thursday, taking the tally to 29 for the meet.

Unfortunately the Dolphins also lost two world records.

The Olympic champion women's 4x200m freestyle relay team settled for fifth as China took over two seconds off their Beijing world record in winning in 7:42.08. \

Eamon Sullivan's 100m freestyle crown was taken by Brazil's Cesar Cielo who became the first man to officially break 47 seconds.

The emotional Cielo, coached by former Australian Olympian Brett Hawke, won in 46.91 seconds to lower Sullivan's 2008 Olympic time of 47.05s.

Of Australia's other finalists, Sophie Edington (27.73s) and Emily Seebohm (27.83s) placed sixth and seventh respectively in the 50m backstroke final and Samantha Hamill (2:06.11) finished eighth in the 200m butterfly won by Schipper.

Former 100m freestyle world record holder Libby Trickett secured her fastest ever swim in a Speedo LZR, qualifying fastest through the semi-finals. Trickett clocked 52.84s, just 0.02s faster than her previous best in a LZR, but counts it as a personal best time as opposed to the 52.62s relay lead off she posted in an Arena suit last Sunday.

"I don't count it (Arena swim). That is just a personal thing. I can say that I've done it, but it's not really comparable," said Trickett.

"I said this morning if I could go faster than 52.88 I would be really happy and now that I've done that I feel like the pressure is off.

"Finals are funny things, they put pressure on you and you can either lift to that pressure or you can crumble a little bit. If I can do that time or a little bit faster again I will be happy."

Teammate Marieke Guehrer (54.21s) meanwhile missed the final in 14th, so too did Sally Foster (2:27.03) who was 15th in the 200m breaststroke semi-finals.

Todd Balym
AAP