Rome, July 28 (DPA) Swimmers feel that the new performance-enhancing high-technology suits being used by most competitors played a big part in the flood of world records that were being broken at the World Championships here.

Monday evening's session saw five world -- as well as several championship -- records falling.

Australian Brenton Rickard won the gold medal in the men's 100m breaststroke in world record time, while Swedish teenage sensation Sarah Sjostrom broke her own world record in the 100m butterfly final.

Ariana Kukors from America won the women's 200m individual medley in world record time, becoming the first women to break the 2:07 mark.

American Rebecca Soni managed to break the women's 100m breaststroke record in the semi-finals, while Russian Anastasia Zueva managed the same feat in the women's 100m backstroke semi-finals.

Kukors, who only swam the event because a teammate scratched at the US trials, said that it was impossible to say just how much the new suits contributed towards the records, but they made a difference.

'Each swimmer is different, but the suits certainly improve the times,' the 20-year-old said.

Rickard swam 58.58 seconds to win the men's 100m breaststroke, beating the previous best mark held by Japan's Kosuke Kitajima. The silver medal went to France's Hugues Duboscq in a time of 58.64, while Cameron Van der Burgh of South Africa took the bronze, 37 seconds behind Rickard.

American Eric Shanteau, who swam a championship record in the semi-finals, finished fourth. He said that he was disappointed with his finish.

'Having set a championship record in the semi-finals, I was hoping to get a medal in the finals, but the other guys did well, so I can't complain.'

Ukrainian Igor Borysik, whose time of 58.67 from earlier this year has not yet been ratified, placed fifth.

In the women's 100m butterfly, Sjostrom swam her second world record in as many days as she won gold in a time of 56.06, beating her own record by .38 seconds.

Jessicah Schipper came second behind Sjostrom in a time of 56.