Emma McKeon makes more history in stunning feat at world championships

Emma McKeon continues to re-write swimming's record books, adding two more gold medals and a world record to her name at the short course world championships on Saturday night. The Aussie superstar completed the sprint double in Melbourne, adding the 50m freestyle title to the 100m crown she'd already won earlier in the meet.

The 28-year-old led at the 25-metre turn before powering home for a clear win ahead of Poland's Katarzyna Wasick and Great Britain's Anna Hopkin. Her time of 23.04 seconds beat her previous personal best mark by 0.46 and set a new championship record, bringing Australia's gold medal tally to 11 in the process.

NOT AGAIN: Aussie swimmer caught in fresh disqualification drama

'INCREDIBLE': Lani Pallister makes swimming history in staggering feat

"I still don't actually call myself a 50m freestyle specialist - I prefer the 100," McKeon said. "But I just knew that I had to kill that start and probably one of my strengths is my start so I knew if I got that I could be in contention. The Polish girl in lane four definitely had a much faster PB going in so I knew I really had to be on my game."

McKeon is Australia's most decorated Olympian of all time with 11 medals to her name. But remarkably, she'd never won an individual world title in short or long course before this meet in Melbourne.

Her gold medal in the 50m was her second of the night after she helped the Aussies win the 4x50m medley relay in a world record time. This time McKeon was swimming the butterfly leg, with Madi Wilson anchoring the team in the freestyle. Wilson touched the wall in 1:42.35 - just 0.06 ahead of the US and Sweden (1:42.43) third. Australia's time eclipsed the previous record set by the Americans in 2018 by 0.03 seconds.

Mollie O'Callaghan, who swam the backstroke leg, joined Wilson in breaking their third relay world record of the meet. O'Callaghan and Wilson also helped break the 4x100m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle records.

Chelsea Hodges, who swam the breaststroke leg, grabbed her first medal of the meet. Wilson said she was feeling the pressure of taking over McKeon's usual role of bringing the Aussies home with the freestyle leg.

"The medley spot is usually saved for the No.1 freestyler in the country and obviously Emma is amazing at so many different strokes so that was my first time anchoring, the relay and I definitely felt the pressure," the 28-year-old said. "But I couldn't be more happy with how it turned out."

Fans and commentators flocked to social media in awe of McKeon's record-breaking feats.

Kyle Chalmers misses out in 50m freestyle

Unfortunately for Australia, Kyle Chalmers missed out on the chance to become the most medalled Australian at a single world championships. With six already to his name, Chalmers was unable to crack the podium in the men's 50m freestyle. The race was won by Jordan Crooks from the Cayman Islands, securing his country's first medal of any colour at a world titles.

Chalmers was earlier part of the men's 4x50m medley relay team who had to settle for bronze after Italy also set a new world record. Chalmers stormed home in the final leg but couldn't catch Leonardo Deplano, with the Italians' time of 1:29.72 eclipsing their own record of 1:30.14.

The men's 800m field were chasing Australian great Grant Hackett's short course record of 7:23.42 - set way back in 2008. Italian veteran Gregorio Paltrinieri was the clear winner in 7:29:99, but didn't get close to Hackett's long-standing mark.

Norway's Henrik Christiansen took silver, while Frenchman Logan Fontaine got the bronze. Japanese hero Daiya Seto won the men's 400m medley for the the sixth consecutive time.

with AAP

Click here to sign up to our newsletter for all the latest and breaking stories from Australia and around the world.