Leisel Jones missed out on bettering her own world record in the 200m breaststroke but had her sights set on another global mark after winning gold at the Australian Short Course Championships in Hobart.

Jones was 1.58 shy of her 2003 world record when she clocked 2mins 19.33secs - the fifth-fastest time in history for the event - to claim the gold medal.

Grant Hackett also shadowed his own world 400m freestyle record, clocking 3:35.73 - the fastest time in the world this year and the fifth-fastest ever - to defeat 18-year-old Nic Donald (3:46.57) and Craig Stevens (3:47.41).

Finishing behind Jones were Sally Foster and Sarah Katsoulis, whose times of 2:21.95 and 2:22.07 were both personal bests and moved the pair to fourth and fifth respectively on the Australian all-time list.

Jones said she was pleased with Saturday night’s swim after feeling flat in qualifying third in the morning.

But the five-time Olympic medallist, who has already set four world records this year, said she was a better chance of breaking American star Tara Kirk’s world 100m breaststroke mark of 1:04.79 later in the meet.

“I am pretty excited about the 100 actually,” the 21-year-old said.

“I was 0.05 off it (the world record) at World Cup (last November) and that was in hard training so obviously I have gone that fast before.

“Obviously it is a world record that I really want but I won’t be disappointed if I don’t get it because we are in incredibly hard training at the moment.”

Minutes after Jones thrilled the Hobart crowd, Australian Team Captain Hackett also flirted with his own world record in the mens 400m freestyle.

Hackett now holds six of the 10 fastest times in history with Ian Thorpe holding the second, fourth, sixth and eighth-best times.

Remarkably it was only the third time Hackett has won the event at an Australian Short Course Championship following victories in 1997 and 2005.

Hackett was disappointed with his winning performance in Friday night’s 200m freestyle but he was more content on Saturday night.

“To come out and swim that sort of time is pretty pleasing,” Hackett said.

“The way it felt was really good because I didn’t feel that special in the warm-up or anything, so at this stage of hard work that’s pretty good.

“To get up and swim times like that considering the workload I’m doing, I know I can still swim best times.”

Hackett will swim the 1500m on Monday night.

In other finals, veteran Adam Pine won back-to-back 100m butterfly titles, Matt Welsh won his 26th national short course crown and his 47th Australian title overall in the men’s 200m backstroke, while Triple Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sophie Edington took out the women’s 100m backstroke.

Matt Lenton, 20, arguably the biggest man in Australian swimming, staked his claim for Australia’s fastest swimmer with a maiden Australian open title in the 50m freestyle.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Melissa Gorman won the 800m freestyle.

The meet continues with heats at 10am Sunday and finals at 6pm and concludes with the final day on Monday.

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