Japan's 18-year-old Akihiro Yamaguchi set a new world record in the men's 200-metre breaststroke on Saturday at the national games in Gifu.
The high-school student clocked two minutes 7.01 seconds, breaking the previous world mark of 2:07.28 set by Daniel Gyurta of Hungary on August 1 at the London Olympics.
Yamaguchi failed to qualify for the Olympic 100m and 200m races after he finished third over both distances in the national championships won by two-time double Olympic gold medallist Kosuke Kitajima.
But Yamaguchi came close to Gyurta's 200m world mark when he clocked 2:07.84 at a national high-school meet on August 17.
ht/sps/pst
