Federica Pellegrini on Tuesday became the second Italian woman after the famed Novella Calligaris to claim a world swimming record, breaking her idol Franziska Van Almsick's five-year-old mark.
Pellegrini, 19, won her world championship semi-final in 1 minute 56.47 seconds, knocking 0.17 seconds off the 1:56.64 set by the German star in the 2002 European championships in Berlin.
"This is totally unexpected...I never thought..." a visibly emotional Pellegrini told Italian state broadcaster RAI right after the event.
"They're all going to be angry tomorrow," she added with a smile, referring to a final in which she is now hot favourite.
Calligaris, who set her 800m freestyle record at the first swimming world championships in Belgrade in 1973, bounced with joy as she saw her successor touch home.
"Bellissima, wonderful, thrilling," she exclaimed, calling Pellegrini "my daughter" and pointing out that they both came from the northern Veneto region.
"Francesca's achievement is much more important than mine," said Calligaris, who captivated Olympics viewers as a slight 17-year-old at the 1972 Munich Olympics, winning a silver medal.
"She did it in one of the sport's blue-riband events, the event of (American superstar Michael) Phelps.
"And she did it so calmly, so elegantly - it even looked like she was holding back.
"What a fantastic girl".
Pellegrini, 19, sprang to fame when she took the 200m freestyle silver medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004.
She came second in the same event at the world championships in Montreal a year later.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano was among those who hailed Pellegrini's feat.
Alluding to her famous predecessor, he quipped to local officials in the northeastern city of Treviso: "You Veneti, you want to keep all the records to yourself".
