Libby Lenton eat your heart out with your 52.99 that didn't count. Libby Trickett has knocked that into a cocked hat with a 52.88 world record at the Australian trials in Sydney. Ever more extraordinary is this meet, at which Australians have now matched the whole of Europe gathered for the continental championships in Eindhoven last week, with six world records apiece. At Australian trials between 1988 and 2004, four world records were broken. Six have gone so far in six days the 2008 trials. The history book has been shredded and a new one has begun.

In other circumstances, the effort of 15-year-old Cate Campbell, on 53.81 would have stood out from the pack, but Trickett (nee Lenton) has confined all that once was to the bucket of scraps. Trickett is now travelling faster than Steve Clark (USA) in 1964, is a touch away from the first world record set by Mark Spitz (USA) in the two-lap dash, and is a stroke away from Mike Wenden (AUS) in 1968.

The world record had stood to Britta Steffen (GER) at 53.30 since August 2006. That time provoked a fair few episodes of finger pointing Down Under. We won't see that now. Trickett will be celebrated as the new queen of sprint. Nothing wrong with that. And doubtless, she and coach Stephan Widmer have been preparing for this moment long and hard, while the splits tell the tale of a much stronger second lap from Trickett than Lenton was capable of at Melbourne 2007. The different approach to the moment Steffen blew away the cobwebs and the moment Trickett tripped the light fantastic will, however, make at least a footnote in European coverage of this moment today.

The margin of improvement in the record - 0.42sec - in one drop matches drops achieved by three other women in the past 30 years: Kornelia Ender and Barbara Krause (GDR) and Le Jingyi (CHN).

Here's how the splits of the latest sprint queens compare:

Tricket, Sydney 2008: 25.40; 27.48 - 52.88 World record
Lenton, Melbourne 2007: 25.38; 28.03 - 53.40 Championship record
Steffen, Budapest, 2006: 25.84; 27.46 - 53.30 WR
Campbell, Sydney 2008: 25.91; 27.90 - 53.81

As Lenton, Trickett was world champion last March on 53.40. She then proved to herself that a sub 53 swim was possible, though the time could not count as a world record because she raced in unconventional circumstances in a lane next to Michael Phelps (USA) in a mixed relay at the Duel in the Pool (USA v AUS) in Sydney in the wake of the world championships last April.

Lenton-Trickett's march into history (best 10 efforts):

52.88 March 2008
52.99 April 2007
53.40 March 2007
53.42 March 2007
53.42 February 2006
53.54 March 2006
53.58 August 2007
53.66 March 2004
53.67 February 2006
53.72 August 2005

And here's the new all-time top 10, showing the gulf Trickett has placed between herself and the pack and the first ever top 10 inside 54sec (one under 53, of course - missed young Cate's latest personal best on the list posted immediately after the race, but there she is, shining at number 9 and knocking Finn Hanna-Maria Seppala's 54 flat out of the top 10):

52.88 Trickett (Lenton) AUS 2008
53.30 Steffen GER 2006
53.40 Coughlin USA 2007
53.52 Henry AUS 2004
53.58 Veldhuis NED 2007
53.58 Weir USA 2006
53.77 De Bruijn NED 2000
53.77 Dekker NED 2008
53.81 Campbell, Cate 2008
53.96 Mills AUS 2005

Behind Trickett, Campbell held the pack at bay, with Melanie Schlanger (54.20), Alice Mills (54.28), Shayne Reese (54.80) and Angela Bainbridge (55.01) in line for relay berths.