A look of sheer disbelief painted the perfect picture after Atkinson's scintillating swim as she stopped the clock at 1min 02.36sec to beat Lithuania's Ruta Meilutyte in the women's 100 metre breaststroke and equal the world record, set by her rival at the World Cup in Moscow last year.

She is the first black woman to win either a Olympic or world swimming title. 

Atkinson's stunning performance was one of five world record times set on day four of the Championships.

"In the last 25 metres, I made sure the pull-out was the best, I really wanted to get that momentum coming up and I think I did that for the most part," said Atkinson, a 25-year-old from Saint Andrew, where the Bob Marley museum is located and 1992 Olympic 100m champion Linford Christie was born. 

"While I was going up I realised I was catching up so I was just trying to get a good finish.

"I'm not used to seeing my name up in number one so it was kind of a shock, but a good one!"

France's Florent Manaudou was back on top form as he broke a second world record in as many days.

After slicing 0.04 off the 50m freestyle record yesterday, the French superstar was back for more today, finishing the 50m backstroke in an impressive 22.22 to decimate Peter Marhsall's previous time of 22.61, set five years ago.

Hungary's Katinka Hosszu made it four for four in the gold medal/world record tally in Doha after taking gold in the 200m individual medley ©Giorgio Scala/Deepbluemedia



It is now four golds, four world records for Hungary's Katinka Hosszu in Doha as she added medal number six with a dominant performance in the 200m individual medley.

Her time of 2:01.86 was enough to blow away the field and her previous world record as became the most decorated female athlete of the Championships.

Record number four fell in the men's 4x50m freestyle relay where the Russian quartet of Vladimir Morozov, Evgeny Sedov, Oleg Tikhobaev and Sergei Fesikov swam a well controlled race to touch home in 1:22.60.

The time is a significant improvement on their previous world record of 1:23.36, set at the last year's World Championships, and more than enough to push the US and Italy into second and third respectively.

It was a different story entirely in the mixed 4x50m freestyle relay where Josh Schneider, Matt Grevers, Madison Kennedy and Abbey Weitze of the United States swung the tide in their favour to race into first in a record breaking time of 1:28.57.

The time ensured they finished ahead of the previous record holders Russia, who came in second, and Brazil in third.

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