Beijing: Federica Pellegrini went under her own world record to become Italy's first-ever female Olympic swimming champion in the women's 200m freestyle at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old Italian carved 0.63sec off her old mark in setting a world record of one minute 54.82 seconds for her country's first gold medal in the pool at the Water Cube.
Slovenia Sara Isakovic won silver in 1:54.97 with China's Pang Jiaying taking the bronze in 1:55.05.
"The final was all about form and I showed that today," said Pellegrini, a silver medallist in Athens in 2004.
"One of my best assets is that I know to react right away. I have been wanting to win this 200 metres for four years, it is a bit of revenge for me. I know Sara since we were very young, we have always raced against each other, she has really exploded in these last few months."
Pellegrini went one better than her silver medal behind Romania's Camelia Potec in the 200m final in Athens and was a bronze medallist at last year's world championship in Melbourne.
The Italian sprinter owns both the 200m and 400m freestyle world records.
"It's great to get the medal and the result, I wasn't expecting 1.54," Isakovic said.
"I am so proud of what I achieved here and happy for Federica too."
Italy's previous best performance by a woman in the pool was by Novella Calligaris with a silver medal behind Australian Shane Gould in the 400m freestyle at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
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