Biedermann beats Phelps
July 29, 2009Germany's Paul Biedermann beat US superstar Michael Phelps in the 200 meters freestyle on Tuesday clocking a new world record of 1:42 minutes. It's the second gold medal for the 22-year-old German after winning the 400 meters freestyle on Sunday.
"It still fells like a dream," Biedermann said after Tuesday's race. "It was very tough, the last meters really hurt. But it was a great race and it's a great feeling to beat Michael Phelps."
Biedermann broke Phelps' standing world record by 0.96 seconds. He's the first German world champion over 200 meters since Michael Gross in 1986.
14-time Olympic champion Phelps came in second trailing Biedermann by 1:22 seconds. It was the first time in five years that Phelps lost a major international race.
"I have to accept that Paul was the better swimmer," Phelps said conceding defeat. "He had a strong year. I simply was not strong enough to challenge him. Congratulations."
Bronze went to Danila Issotov from Russia.
The second German medal of the day was won by Helge Meeuw in the 100 meters backstroke. Meeuw clocked a time of 52:54 seconds and came second only to Japan’s Junya Koga who was 28 hundreds of a second faster. Aschwin Wildeboer took bronze.
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Editor: Neil King