Phelps settles for silver in 200m IM

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Michael Phelps finished second in the 200m individual medley final at a short-course World Cup meet on Wednesday, struggling in the old-style swimsuit that will become standard next year.

Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, clocked in at 1 minute, 53.93 seconds. He was more than two seconds behind South Africa's Darian Townsend, who won in 1:51.79.

"I'm swimming OK," Phelps said, adding his time "wasn't bad. I haven't practiced regularly."

Phelps was ahead of world-record pace during the opening (butterfly) leg, but he and the rest of the field fell back over the next two laps. Townsend, swimming in lane No. 8, roared ahead of Phelps at the start of the freestyle portion and finished about a body length ahead.

Lithuanian Vytautas Janusaitis placed third in 1:54.34.

Earlier, Phelps failed to advance to the 100m butterfly final after finishing 11th in qualifying heats in 51.06 seconds. Kaio Almeida of Brazil was fastest in 50.34.

It was the third final that Phelps missed at the meet. On Tuesday he failed to qualify for the finals of the 100m freestyle and 100m backstroke, in which he was disqualified for swimming too far under water.

Phelps is competing for the first time since the world championships in August. His coach, Bob Bowman, has said he wants Phelps to use the old-style suit in the lead-up to the U.S. Championships next year.

Earlier on Wednesday, American Peter Marshall broke his own world record in the 50m backstroke with a time of 22.73. He set the previous mark of 22.75 in Durban, South Africa last month. Also on Wednesday, China's Liu Zige broke the women's 200m butterfly mark. She clocked in at 2:02.50, lowering the old time of 2:03.12 set by Japan's Yuku Nakanishi in February.

During the preliminaries, U.S. swimmer Jessica Hardy reset her world standard in the 50m breaststroke -- something she has done at each of the three World Cup meets this season. Hardy went on to win the race during the finals session, but did not beat her new world record of 28.96.

After Phelp's silver-medal performance, China's Zhao Jing broke the women's 100m IM world record with a time of 58.40. And, in the final event of the meet, Swede Therese Alshammar lowered the world standard in the women's 50m butterfly. She set the previous low at the Durban meet.