France's Laure Manaudou has crushed the women's 200m freestyle world record on the way to winning the world title in a thrilling race in Melbourne on Wednesday night.

The 400m world champion finished in one minute 55.52 seconds, chopping just under a full second off the mark set by Italian Federica Pellegrini of 1:56.47 in Tuesday night's semi-finals.

It was Manaudou's second gold medal of the week, the third world record of the night session and seventh overall this week at Rod Laver Arena.

Manaudou set a cracking pace early on in the race and German powerhouse Annika Lurz (1.55.68) was just unable to chase down the brilliant Frenchwoman in a tight finish.

Pellegrini (1:56.97) claimed the bronze medal.

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