Kitajima sets world breaststroke mark

TOKYO: Kosuke Kitajima shattered the men's 200m breaststroke world record yesterday, the Japanese double Olympic gold medalist clocking two minutes, 7.51 seconds to slice almost a second off the existing mark.

The 25-year-old's time eclipsed American Brendan Hansen's two-year-old record of 2:08.50 at an Olympic send-off competition in Tokyo ahead of August's Beijing Games.

"I feel like crying," Kitajima told reporters.