Phelps flops again; world records fall at World Cup

Phelps, who claimed eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, touched the wall in a time of 1 min 54.22 secs behind Russia's Nikolay Skvortsov's winning time of 1 min 51.64 secs.

Having finished third in the 100-metre medley in Stockholm's World Cup meet last week where he missed out on two other finals, Phelps swam in traditional trunks here while some of his rivals wore the modern high-tech swimsuits.

And the Olympic hero said he was bitterly disappointed at another poor performance.

“Others may want to wear the high-tech suits, but I am preparing for the future,” said Phelps with the world's governing body FINA to ban the modern swimsuits from January 1 2010.

Phelps, 24, suffered the first defeat in four years to Germany's Paul Biedermann, 23, in the 200m freestyle final at Rome's World Championships last July and the pair are set to clash here again on Sunday in the same event.

Biedermann also holds the world short course record (1:40.83) achieved in Berlin last year and received a boost ahead of his Phelps head-to-head by breaking the world record here in the men's shortcourse 400m freestyle.

The 23-year-old German clocked 3 mins 32.77secs to break Australian Grant Hackett's previous mark of 3 mins 34.58seconds, despite only getting the green light to race on Friday after recovering from a thigh injury.

Phelps and Biedermann are set to clash again here on Sunday morning when the men's 200m freestyle heats get underway with the finals on Sunday evening.

Records tumbled all day at Berlin's Landsberger Allee pool as Japanese teenager Shiho Sakai broke the women's 200m backstroke record.

Sakai won the final in a time of 2 min 0.18 sec to take 0.73sec off the previous mark set by Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry.

“I still can't believe it,” said the 19-year-old.

And Germany's Steffen Deibler broke his own world record in the men's shortcourse 50m butterfly.

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