Rome, July 31 (DPA) World records continued falling in the Foro Italico here at the World Swimming Championships.

On Thursday seven world records on the day took the total to 29, with three days of competition still remaining.

Brazilian Cesar Cielo Filho and Australian Jessicah Schipper also managed to break through seemingly unreachable barriers.

Cielo Filho became the first athlete to swim the men's 100m freestyle in a time that was recognised under 47 seconds, while Schipper took the women's 200m butterfly record to under 2:04 minutes.

The 22-year-old Brazilian won the gold medal in a time of 46.91, beating the old record belonging to Australian Eamon Sullivan's by 14 seconds.

Cielo Filho, who was lying second at the turn, won ahead of the French duo of Alain Bernard (47.12) and Frederick Bousquet (47.25), who won the silver and bronze medal respectively.

The Brazilian said afterwards though that he did not consider himself the first swimmer to have achieved that milestone. 'Bernard managed that earlier this year and even though the time has not been ratified, I do not think I am the first swimmer to break the 47 seconds.'

Schipper shaved nearly a second off the women's 200m butterfly world record, which American Mary De Scenza had only established on Wednesday.

Schipper won the gold medal in a time of 2:03.41, beating De Scenza's time of 2:04.14.

China's Liu Zige, who led until the final turn, also managed to stay under the 2:04 with a time of 2:03.90 to take the silver medal, while Hungarian Katinka Hosszu won the bronze medal in 2:04.28.

De Scenza finished fourth.

Zhao Jing broke Anastasia Zueva's 50m backstroke record as she took the gold medal in a time of 27.06, beating the Russian's time of 27.38.

Germany's Daniela Samulski won silver. 17 behind, while another Chinese swimmer, Gao Chang, won the bronze medal for China in a time of 27.28.

There was further joy for the Chinese team as their women's 4x200m freestyle relay team consisting of Yang Yu, Zhu Qian Wei, Liu Jing and Pang Jiaying took more than two seconds of the world record held by Australia.

China won gold in a time of 7:42.