BUDAPEST: American Torri Huske nearly broke the women’s 100m butterfly world record at the swimming world championships in Budapest on Sunday while Nicolo Martinenghi became the first Italian to win the 100 metre breaststroke gold.

Huske looked well set to break the world record in the final 50m but finished with a time of 55.64 seconds - just 0.16 seconds shy.

The 19-year-old finished half a second ahead of France’s Marie Wattel who took silver while China’s Zhang Yufei took the bronze.

“I’m so happy, this is an amazing field of women and I’m just very lucky to be here. I don’t know how to put this into words, but I just want to thank my coaches and family back home,” Huske said.

“It’s helped (my confidence) a little bit but I still have a lot of races to focus on.” The medal was her second at the championships after helping the US team win the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay on Saturday.