The defending champion’s time of 26.62 seconds eclipsed the 26.67 he set at the World Championships in 2009.
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Adam Peaty gave Britain its first gold medal in the temporary pool at Kazan Arena with a comeback victory in the 100 breaststroke.
It was a case of whatever you do, I can do better as Peaty responded with a sizzling 26.42 swim to take 0.2 off Van der Burgh’s record in his semi-final in the evening. As noted in the aforementioned piece, the Brit has also swum a time of 26.62, in Berlin last year, but FINA didn’t approve it because Peaty had not been tested for EPO.
Earlier Monday, American teenager Katie Ledecky bettered her own world record in the 1,500 freestyle preliminaries.
Van der Burgh was second in 58.59secs and Britain’s Ross Murdoch claimed the bronze medal in 59.09, a Scottish record.
“So I just enjoyed what I was doing in tonight’s race”.
Meanwhile, Australian Emma McKeon was seventh fastest in the women’s 200m freestyle heats in a time of 1:57.78, after being left in tears following a fourth-place finish in Monday’s 100m butterfly final. Van der Burgh’s time was 58.59.
Horton emerged from a blistering heat to qualify fifth fastest for Wednesday night’s final with a time of 7:47.08.
“It was great just to get out there and put a good time on the board”.
Van der Burgh is the first man to set a world record at this year’s event, with four women having done so across the opening two days.
“Twenty-five meters out he was still in front, so I was a bit skeptical, but I remembered what I had trained for was moments like this and I came out on top-thankfully”.
After retaining his 400m freestyle world title on Sunday, Sun is hoping to leave Kazan as the owner of the 200m, 800m and 1500m golds.
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South African fans will be looking for a stronger performance from the Olympic champion in the 100m and 200m butterfly events later this week.
