Cate Campbell powers to 100m freestyle title in Barcelona Cate Campbell comes to grips with her victory in the women's freestyle 100m at the world championships in Barcelona. CATE Campbell has joined James Magnussen as the world 100m freestyle champion, marking the first time in more than 50 years that Australia has boasted the sprint king and queen in the same year. The Australian team had never achieved that feat at the world championships, which began in 1973, and the last time Australia had global sprint dominance at the Olympic Games was in 1960, when Dawn Fraser and John Devitt won the respective 100m freestyle titles. "I'm glad to be part of history," Campbell said. I'll be the answer to that trivia question on day. Some sport freak will get it. Campbell has had one hand on this title since her extraordinary opening blast in the 4 X 100m freestyle relay last Sunday, when her time of 52.33s put the swimming world back on its heels. It made her the fastest female sprinter ever in a textile swimsuit, by 0.4s of a second or a full body-length, and gave her a huge advantage over the sprint field assembled in Barcelona. But she had to wait five nerve-jangling days to confirm her supremacy in tonight's 100m freestyle final. Campbell went out at supersonic speed, making the turn in 24.85s, a third of a second faster than she went in the relay, and that itself was the fastest anyone had ever seen from a female sprinter. She led by a body-length and swam tough down the second lap holding the world at bay to win in 52.34s. "I was just thinking: "This doesn't hurt as much as training. You can get on that wall,"" Campbell said. Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom made some in-roads on the return lap but was still left more than half a second behind as she claimed the silver medal in 52.89s. Olympic champion Ranomi Kromowidjojo was more than a second behind the Australian (53.42s) in third. Campbell, who was first acclaimed as a future champion at 14, said she was struggling to believe she had finally done it. "It's weird to be striving your whole life to achieve something and then to have achieved it in under a minute," she said. It's rather an odd feeling but I'm just taking every moment as it comes and I'm enjoying it all. Knowing I only have half the distance to swim tomorrow makes it a lot better. The statuesque 185cm tall speedster first emerged as a one-lap specialist - her training was restricted by a chronic hip injury she sustained playing handball as a child - but has begun to show her true potential over the classic sprint distance over the past year. She said it was "strange" to win her first major title over 100m, although the 50m can't be far behind based on this performance. "I have a love-hate relationship with the 100," she admitted. At the moment it's love. Tomorrow it will probably be hate when I'm feeling all sore and exhausted but I'm just enjoying every moment as it comes. We've really done a lot of work on the 100. Before, illness and injury prevented that. I was more a 50m swimmer by default, so to speak, rather than by choice. Campbell, 21, was born in Malawi, in Africa, and learned to swim in a lake where hippopotamus lived. Her family emigrated to Australia when she was eight and she and her sister Bronte walked into coach Simon Cusack's pool at Indooroopilly in Brisbane thinking that swimming was a good way to make friends. She first began to show startling speed at 14 (she was already 182cm tall), and won her first Olympic medal at 16, bronze in the 50m freestyle in Beijing in 2008. But she has had to overcome a number of serious setbacks to complete her destiny. She developed glandular fever and post-viral fatigue in 2010 which ruled her out of international swimming for more than a year. It was only with the help of a Chinese herbalist in August 2011 that she was able to return to the pool at all. She then made a steady recovery and qualified for the 2012 Olympics in both the 50m and 100m freestyle. She won her first gold medal as a member of the 4 X 100m freestyle relay on the first night but was then felled by pancreatitis, which prevented her from contesting the individual event. She had recovered enough to swim the 50m but she missed the final. She felt that lost opportunity keenly and was on a mission when she returned to training after the Games. Finally, she has had an uninterrupted season and has been able to show exactly what she can do. "It makes it all the sweeter right now," she said. I wouldn't change anything for the world. Magnussen returned to the pool to contest the semi-finals of the 50m freestyle tonight but missed the final by one place, clocking 21.79s. Australia's other entrant Matt Abood was also eliminated (11th, 21.91s). Magnussen had predicted that making the 50m final would be his biggest challenge as he came down from the excitement of yesterday's 100m victory. "I couldn't quite get going," he said. It wasn't a priority but it's pretty disappointing to miss a final. He was more impressed by Campbell's performance. She went out early and dominated the race. It shows that we're doing something right in sprinting," he said. In other events, Sally Foster (2:24.01) finished seventh in the 200m breaststroke final won by Russia's Yuliya Efomova (2:19.41), while Belinda Hocking (2:08.20) qualified fourth fastest for tonight's 200m backstroke final.