Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) para athlete Dmitrii Cherniaev won 100 metres breaststroke SB4 gold in a world record time of 1min 31.96sec at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

Cherniaev was dominant from the off, turning first in 41.84 seconds, before powering down the final 50 metres to break a nine-year world record set by Daniel de Faria Dias at London 2012 by more than a quarter of a second.

The 21-year-old finished almost four seconds clear of his closest competitor, Moisés Fuentes García of Colombia, and moved RPC into third in the medal standings.

Fellow RPC athlete Alexander Molkov finished fourth after Cherniaev qualified fastest in 1:33.42.

Dmitrii Cherniaev broke the 100m breastsroke SB4 world record by more than a quarter of a second ©Getty Images
Dmitrii Cherniaev broke the 100m breastsroke SB4 world record by more than a quarter of a second ©Getty Images

Cherniaev won SB4 100m breaststroke gold at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London and was named among the top 10 para athletes in the Chelyabinsk region in 2020 and among the top 10 athletes in the Chelyabinsk region in 2019.

In 2020, he won the SB4 100m breaststroke European title and received the title of Honoured Master of Sport in the Russian Federation.

Cherniaev took up the sport as a nine-year-old in Chelyabinsk, his parents enrolling him in the sport after meeting a coach at a local meet.