PENNY Heyns broke the five-year-old women’s 200 meter breaststroke world record at a Los Angeles event on Saturday, setting a new time of two minutes 24.51 seconds. Heyns, competing in the sixth annual Janet Evan Invitational competition, first broke Australian Rebecca Brown’s record of 2:24.76 in the qualifying rounds with a time of 2:24.69. She came back in the evening’s final race at the University of Southern California McDonald’s Swim Stadium and swam 2:24.51. Heyns has a history of swimming fast in the morning, but slow in the evening. So the second record came as a big surprise to her. “Never in my wildest dreams (did I think) I would do this,” Heyns was quoted as saying in the Los Angeles Times. Heyns won gold medals in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke events in the 1996 Olympics. Her record was even more incredible because she is still in midseason training.