Michael Phelps beaten by a supersuit

The unthinkable occurred last night in the swimming world championships in Rome: the great Michael Phelps, winner of a record eight gold medals in the pool at the Beijing Olympics, was beaten for the first time in five years in the 200m freestyle final - by a German wearing a "supersuit". The American swimmer's coach immediately announced that Phelps would not swim again until the controversial new-generation suits are banned.

Phelps actually took three tenths of a second off his personal best - but it was nowhere near enough to keep up with the German Paul Biedermann wearing an Arena X-glide suit. Biedermann beat Phelps' world record by almost a full second.

What is important to swimming purists is that, before he got his hands on the new suit, Biedermann could finish only a distant fifth behind Phelps in the same event in Beijing. With the Arena suit, he has taken a full four seconds off his time.

The new-generation suits - made by Arena, adidas and others - are fully coated in polyurethane, making them water-impermeable, which adds considerably to the wearer's buoyancy. Fina, the sport's governing body, has said they are legal for the time being, but will be banned under a new bye-law to be introduced by April 2010 limiting manufacturers to certain textiles.

However, Fina is adamant that any world records established by swimmers wearing the new suits will stand.

Phelps said after the race: "I look forward to racing Biedermann next summer. It will be fun when swimming gets back to swimming."

Meanwhile, Britain's Gemma Spofforth proved it is still possible to win in an "old-fashioned" suit - like Phelps she wears a Speedo LZR suit - by taking gold in the women's 100m backstroke. She beat the world record set by the Russian Anastasia Zueva who came second, despite wearing a polyurethane-coated suit. ·