American swimmer Gretchen Walsh stormed to 54.33 seconds in the women's 100-meter butterfly at the Fort Lauderdale Open in Florida, lowering her own world record for the fourth time.

The 23-year-old sliced 27-hundredths of a second off the previous mark of 54.60 she set in the same pool last May. She has now broken the record four times, twice in one day at last year's meet.

Winner of three world titles in Singapore last year, Walsh is now more than a second faster than the second-fastest woman in history, Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom (55.48). She was more than four seconds ahead of world junior record holder Claire Curzan (58.44) and leads the world this season by over two seconds.

Walsh now owns more than a third of all sub-56-second swims in the event's history. She joked on social media about making the world record an "annual thing," expressing gratitude for the crowd and the pool.

France's Olympic hero Leon Marchand captured two titles to take his weekly tally to four, winning the 200m breaststroke (2:09.04) and 200m individual medley (1:57.28).

Katie Ledecky opened the day with an 8:12.66 in the women's 800m freestyle, finishing more than 30 seconds ahead of Katie Grimes (8:40.80). The most decorated female swimmer in history was just off her season's best of 8:08.57.

Source: www.aljazeera.com