Monday, August 11, 2008 - 1:23 PM

Libby Trickett secured Australia's second gold medal of the Olympic Games with victory in the 100 metres butterfly at the Water Cube in Beijing.

Trickett won in a time of 56.73 after splitting the 50m in 26.77, while Jess Schipper, the world record holder in the 200m butterfly, finished third in 57.25 behind American Christine Magnuson (57.10).

It is Trickett's second Olympic gold medal after winning with the women's 4x100m freestyle relay team in Athens in 2004, and she becomes the third Australian gold medallist in the event following Lyn McClements (1968) and Petria Thomas from Athens.

Trickett says her victory was a dream come true, but followed some extremely nervous moments.

"It's more than I could have dreamed," she said. "I just feel probably more than anything relieved.

"Before the race I felt like I was going to vomit, I was probably that nervous!

"But then just before I walked out I had an amazing sense of calm."

The 23-year-old world champion was under world record pace at the 50m and finished just .12 of a second outside the world record set by Dutch swimmer Inge de Bruijn at the Sydney Olympics.

Trickett punched the water in frustration when she looked at the screen and saw that she had just missed out on breaking the eight-year world record, but then the realisation of her first Olympic gold medal sunk in.

Suit trouble


After the race Schipper told the media she had had trouble doing up her suit in the lead-up to the race and had to switch to an alternative suit.

Trickett, who was a favourite at the Athens Games but failed to produce her best when it counted most, said she just wanted to do her best.

"I just said to myself, more than anything I want to walk away with absolutely no regrets.

"And you know, to come up with not only a gold medal but a personal best time in these sorts of circumstances, honestly it's more than I could have dreamed and hoped for."

She paid tribute to her team-mate, Schipper.

"I'm just so happy, and I get to share the medal presentation with Jess [Schipper] which is really special for me, because I wouldn't be here without her.

"So that's really important for me as well."

Schipper was happy with her efforts.

"I just came in here wanting to go better than I did in Athens and get an individual medal," she said.

"So I'm pretty happy with the way it all turned out."

"I had a bit of a problem in marshalling, my suit wouldn't zip up," she said.

Swimming officials said an alternative suit had to be found for Schipper just minutes before the race started.

Trickett qualified fastest for the final with a time of 57.05 seconds in yesterday's first semi-final, while Schipper posted a time of 57.43 seconds to win the second semi.