INQUIRER Sports

BERLIN--Michael Phelps admitted Saturday he is in poor form after another disappointing performance saw him finish fifth in the men's 200m butterfly final as world records tumbled here at the shortcourse World Cup meet.

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-meter 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.

"I am not in the form that I really want to be."

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.

"I am really pleased with the race, the leg was a bit sore before and I needed 45 minutes to get into my suit," said the German.

"I am looking forward to racing Michael."

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.

"I should be pleased with the race, but it is a pity I didn't go under the two-minute mark. That's now my goal for the future."

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

The swimmer from Hamburg clocked 21.80 seconds to knock 0.26 of a second off his time which he set three weeks ago in Aachen.

"I put in a good performance in the heats, but I never thought I would break the world record," he said.

"I think my good performance is based on some tough training last year."

Australia's Leisel Jones also lowered her own mark in the women's shortcourse 100m breaststroke.

The 24-year-old clocked 1 min 3.00sec to lower her own mark of 1 min 3.72secs which she set six months ago in Canberra.

Earlier in the day, South Africa's Cameron Van Der Burgh broke the men's 50m breaststroke mark while Russia's Serguei Fesikov set a new record in the men's shortcourse 100m individual medley.