Phelps beaten by supersuited Biedermann

Michael Phelps tonight suffered his first defeat in international competition for four years when Paul Biedermann convincingly beat him in the 200metres freestyle at the World Championships in Rome.

The 14-time Olympic champion last failed to get gold when he was edged out by fellow American Ian Crocker in the 100m butterfly at the worlds in Montreal.

Phelps had not been beaten in the 200m free since the Athens Olympics in 2004 but Biedermann produced an astonishing swim to triumph by a body length and also set a new world record of one minute 42.00 seconds in the process.

The German has now claimed two gold medals and consigned two previously untouchable world records to history at the Foro Italico.

On Sunday he had brought down Ian Thorpe's iconic 400m freestyle mark before following it up tonight to stun the American who was glum on the podium.

Biedermann has clearly benefited from donning the Arena X-Glide while Phelps has remained in his Speedo LZR, revolutionary last year but now overtaken by the all-polyurethane suits.

Great Britain's Gemma Spofforth is the only Speedo-clad individual champion here in Italy, winning the 100m backstroke tonight in world-record time, while Jaked, Adidas and Arena rule the waves.

FINA did though announce tonight they would be backing the congress' call for a return to textile suits with the profile of the suit also cut back, although it may be delayed until April or May next year.

Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, has recommended the swimmer does not swim internationally after this meet until the issue is fully resolved.

Phelps himself said: 'I look forward to racing Biedermann next summer. It will be fun when swimming gets back to swimming.'

Of his race, done in a time of 1:43.22, Phelps added: Theoretically it was a pretty good swim for me. Three tenths off my best time after taking six months off.

'I'm not happy but I know I didn't train much this year.'

Biedermann was understandably ecstatic, saying: 'It's still hard for me to believe that I defeated a legend like Phelps. I won two gold medals and I still have to swim the relay.

'It is true that he has been training only for six months and he is not the same as at the Beijing Olympics. But the German team which I am part of is great.'

Biedermann's mark was one of four world records which fell tonight.

Spofforth, who twice yesterday became the second fastest in history over 100m backstroke, today set a new mark of 58.12 ahead of Anastasia Zueva of Russia and Australia's Emily Seebohm.

Federica Pellegrini set her second mark of the championships so far when she lowered her own 200m freestyle world record to 1:53.67 in the semis.

Cameron Van Der Burgh dipped 0.15 inside Franca Da Silva's three-month-old mark in the 50m breaststroke final in 26.74 ahead of Germany's Hendrick Feldwehr with Silva in fourth.

Italy had more reason to cheer when Alessia Filippi won the 1,500m freestyle ahead of Lotte Friis and Camelia Potec, Japan's Junya Koga claimed the 100m backstroke title ahead of Helge Meeuw and Aschwin Wildeboer and Takeshi Matsuda was fastest through ahead of Phelps in the 200m butterfly.

Phelps continued: 'It is clear that I am not in my best shape and I know that I have to physically train and get back to my best performance level with a view to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

'Paul is a very strong swimmer and has had an excellent year. I did all I could to beat him, including the strong underwater kicking that usually works well but he was faster than me.

'I have not been beaten by the swimsuit but by a great athlete. However, a solution needs to be found to the issue of swimsuits as this is not swimming any more.

'Technology has to go forward but I am looking forward to the time when we can go back to pure swimming. I will start working as soon as I can and I am confident that I will be in my best shape for the next major competitions, particularly for London.'