Michael Phelps was beaten formerly more as four world records fell at the FINA World Cup meet in Stockholm on Wednesday.
The 24-year-old American swam a short-course personal best in the 100 meters butterfly of 51.06 seconds in the morning but failed to make the final -- his third failure to progress this week -- while in the evening he was beaten into second place in the men's 200m individual medley by South Africa's Darian Townsend, who set a World Cup best of one minute 51.79 seconds.
World records fell in the men's 50m backstroke as American Peter Marshall clocked 22.73 and the women's 200m butterfly as China's Liu Zige recorded a time of 2:02.50, while her compatriot Zhao Jing touched the wall in 58.40 in the women's 100m IM and Sweden's Therese Alshammar clocked 24.46 in the women's 50m butterfly.
On Tuesday, Phelps was third in the men's 100m IM but 16th in the 100m freestyle and disqualified from the 100m backstroke.
His indifferent results continued as he ranked 11th in the 100m butterfly, despite his best time, before Townsend touched first in the 200m IM.
However, the 14-time Olympic champion has abandoned the high-tech bodysuit his opponents donned and instead is wearing the textile-only shorts that will be mandatory from January 1.
As well as anticipating the FINA ban with his 2010 attire, Phelps was sporting a beard and admitted he was not in the best shape coming into the meet.
More than 200 world records have been set since the advent of the supersuits in February 2008 with four more falling on Tuesday -- including two in the 50m backstroke for Zhao Jing -- while on Wednesday morning Jessica Hardy lowered the 50m breaststroke mark she set herself days ago in Moscow.
