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Olympic champion Liu Zige smashed the women's 200m butterfly world record by almost two seconds at China's National Games.

The official Xinhua news agency said Liu touched in two minutes and 1.81 seconds, shattering Australian Jessica Schipper's previous mark of 2:03.41 set at the World Championships in Rome in July.

Liu, who won Olympic gold in a world record time in Beijing last year, finished almost four seconds clear of her long-time arch rival Jiao Liuyang, runner-up at the Olympics.

The 22-year-old warned she could improve on the time.

"I don't think the result today is fast enough for me, and there is still room for me to better the record in the future," she said. "Every tiny progress could make a new world record, which is very common in the pool."

It was the first swimming world record at the Chinese National Games being held in Jinan, in eastern Shandong province.

She attributed her success to her tough training regime after the Worlds, where she finished second.

"I trained very hard after I came back from the Rome worlds, without even one day off," said Liu, who led the race from start to finish.

"I work very well with my coach, who set a higher standard for my training in terms of intensity and capacity."

Liu's coach Jin Wei said before the race that he felt she could break the world record.

AFP