Marleen Veldhuis has taken the silver medal in the 100 metres freestyle at the World Swimming Championships in Melbourne in a time of 53.70. The gold went to Australia’s Lisbeth Lenton in 53.30.

Veldhuis, who qualified for the final in fifth place, beat the Dutch record set by Inge de Bruijn at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. ‘Its super, I thought to myself, I’m going to go for it and see what happens. That was my strategy,’ Veldhuis said after the race.