Amy Van Dyken broke her 9-day-old American record in winning the women's 50-meter freestyle in 25.03 seconds in the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships on Sunday night.
It was the sixth-fastest time in history, with two Chinese women accounting for the other five."That swim was the fastest by a `clean' woman ever," said Van Dyken, a 23-year-old from Englewood, Colo.
U.S. swimmers have accused the Chinese women swimmers of using performance-enhancing drugs.
Van Dyken broke her own meet record of 25.19 set in the time trials earlier in the day and her own American record set in the U.S. nationals on Aug. 4 at 25.13. The world mark of 24.51 was set in 1994 by Jingyi Le of China.
"I think that a lot more training and I might be able to do it," Van Dyken said of breaking the world record.
Jenny Thompson of Dover, N.H., who beat Van Dyken in the 100 freestyle, was second in 25.38. Thompson has won 13 golds and 17 medals in four Pan Pacific meets, most for women in both categories.
Florida 15-year-old Brooke Bennett's bid to sweep the women's three distance events was thwarted by Australia's Hayley Lewis, who won the 800-meter freestyle in 8:28.78. Bennett had a personal best 8:29.21.
Tom Dolan of Arlington, Va., won the men's 200-meter individual medley in his first time swimming the event internationally in 2:00.89.
Gary Hall of Paradise Valley, Ariz., completed a sweep of the sprints by winning the 50-meter freestyle in 22.30 seconds, edging David Fox of Raleigh, N.C., by 0.01 seconds.
The American men wrapped up the competition by winning the 4x100 medley relay over the Australians, giving the U.S. a 9-6 edge in gold medals and a 23-19 margin overall in medals.
The team of Jeff Rouse of Fredericksburg, Va., Eric Wunderlich of Atlanta, Mark Henderson of Washington, Md., and Hall broke the meet record with a 3:37.04 in the relay, missing the world mark of 3:36.93 set by the United States in the 1992 Olympics.
Australia's quartet of Nicole Stevenson, Samantha Riley, Susan O'Neill and Sarah Ryan won the 4x100 medley relay in 4:02.93, using the victory to post a 7-6 edge over the United States in gold medals for women. The U.S. team of Lea Loveless, Amanda Beard, Thompson and Van Dyken was second in 4:05.60. The U.S. won the overall medal count 19-15 over the Australians.
Riley, who was disqualified in the 100 breaststroke, came back to win the 200 Sunday night with a meet record time of 2:24.81, only 0.05 seconds off the world mark set by Rebecca Brown of Australia in 1994. Beard, 13, of Irvine, Calif., was third in 2:28.20, the fourth fastest ever by an American.