year-old Sarah Sjostrom broke the world record for the second time in two days to snatch gold in the 100 meters butterfly at an increasingly bizarre world swimming championships on Monday. New all-polyurethane swimsuits, which are due to be banned from January because they are performance enhancing, have prompted a deluge of world records and left swimming's credibility hanging by a thread. Sjostrom finished 27th at last year's Beijing Olympics but blasted through the Foro Italico's open air pool in an astonishing 56.06 seconds to take the title having swum a 56.44 in Sunday's semifinals. Five records fell on Monday after six crumbled like Roman ruins on Sunday. Ariana Kukors, who broke the women's 200m individual medley record in Sunday's semifinals, bettered the mark again to take gold in Monday's final in a mind-boggling time of 2:06.15. The American edged out Olympic champion Stephanie Rice despite not even qualifying for last year's Beijing Games. “It's been a whirlwind the last couple of days,” she said. Brenton Rickard of Australia bagged the first world record of the session in the men's 100m breaststroke final, sending statisticians scurrying after chalking up a 58.58. The world records being set could stand for years to come with governing body FINA poised to confirm a return to all-textile suits and trunks for men in 2010. Michael Phelps acknowledged the improved performance of Paul Biedermann after qualifying third behind the German in the 200m freestyle semifinals. Biedermann cracked Ian Thorpe's 400m world record on Sunday. “He has gone six seconds faster in the 400m in a year,” remarked Phelps. The American could struggle for gold in Tuesday's 200m final. In other world records to fall on the second day of competition, America's Rebecca Soni powered home in the 100m breaststroke semifinals in 1:04.84. Anastasia Zueva then made a splash in the semifinals of the 100m backstroke by triumphing in just 58.48. The Russian beat Kirsty Coventry's previous best of 58.77 with Gemma Spofforth of Britain then finishing in 58.74 in the second semifinal. The two biggest surprises on another sweltering Rome day were Olympic champion Aaron Peirsol failing to qualify for the 100m backstroke final and Milorad Cavic grabbing gold in the 50m butterfly final. American Peirsol said he had miscalculated his swim having stated after the earlier heats that he would have to better his own world record to win Tuesday's final. Serbia's Cavic swam a championship record of 22.67 seconds to hold off the challenge of Australia's Matt Targett and world record holder Rafael Munoz of Spain.
