British teen Freya Rayner has grabbed a place in the history books by swimming the second-fastest time ever in in the 50m freestyle.

Rayner became the second-fastest 16-year-old in Great Britain in a 25 metre pool after posting a time of 25.36 seconds in the final of the NER championships at the weekend.

"I couldn't believe my time as it wasn't even a target meet for me, I wasn't expecting such a good swim," SportsByte quotes Rayner as saying.

"I'd been talking to my coach Danny about swimming a 25 and that was a huge goal for me this season - something I'd only dreamt about, and actually swimming that time was overwhelming."

Fran Halsall has held the fastest time of 24.58 seconds since 2006.