Swimming: New record set by teenager

China's Han Xue set a new world short-course record at the World Cup meeting in Glasgow yesterday. The 15-year-old sliced 0.1sec off her own record for the 50 metres breaststroke, which she set last year with a time of 30.88sec.

It was the first world record to be registered at Glasgow's new pounds 9m facility at the Tollcross Park Leisure Centre, which is hosting its first major meeting.

Han, whose previous record came at the meeting in Peking last January, won by well over a second from Britain's Jamie King, who recorded 32.11.

Susan Rolph's hopes of completing a hat-trick of victories ended when she was beaten into second place in the 100m freestyle. Rolph, who won the 200m individual medley in Wednesday's opening session, had gone into the final with the fastest time in the heats.

However, the 18-year-old, who captured the silver medal in the event at last month's European Championships, lost out to Germany's Katrin Meissner by just over 0.3sec.

The Newcastle-based Rolph clocked 57.79sec compared to Meissner's 54.43, with Leeds' Claire Huddart, who won the British title last month, fifth in 55.39.

James Hickman continued his record-breaking efforts in the 100m butterfly - but it was not enough for victory as Australian Michael Klim came within a whisker of a world mark.

Hickman, who won the 200m butterfly event with a British record on Wednesday, set a new European record last night, beating the seven-year-old mark set by Germany's Michael Gross.

The Stockport Metros swimmer, who will be 21 on Sunday, clocked 52.34sec to beat Gross's mark of 52.51 and take 0.7sec off the personal best he set in Sheffield last month.

Hickman's swim pushed Klim to a time of 52.09, just two-hundredths of a second off the world record set by Canada's Marcel Gery in 1990.

It was Klim's fourth victory of the meeting. Only minutes earlier, he had won the 200m freestyle after his triumphs in the 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly on Wednesday.

The Portsmouth teenager Margaretha Pedder set a new British 200m butterfly record when finishing second to China's Liu Limin.

The 16-year-old recorded a time of 2min 11.33sec to take half a second off the record of 2:11.82 set by Samantha Purvis in 1990.

Liu won by a huge margin in 2:06.85, finishing the event just a second off the world best, which was established by Mary Meagher of the United States 16 years ago.