Double Olympic champion Britta Steffen on Thursday set a new world record for the women's 100 metres freestyle in a time of 52.85sec at the German national championships.

The previous record of 52.88 was held by Australian Libby Trickett.

Steffen won 100m Olympic gold in Beijing last year, beating Tricket at the death. She then performed in similar fashion to beat Dara Torres by just 0.01 to win gold in the 50m.