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Summary
Michael Phelps will leave the Swedish capital without a win in five events over two days after finishing second in the 200 metres medley final at a World Cup short course event.The American finished the Eriksdalsbadet course in one minute 53.93 seconds behind South African Darian Townsend who finished in 1:51.79. Phelps had come into the final with the tied second best time. Phelps failed during the morning heats to make it into the 100 metres butterfly final despite producing a short course personal best. The Stockholm meeting is the first short course event since 2006 for Phelps, who won eight Olympic golds last year and five titles at the world championships in Rome in July and August. He made it into only one of three finals on Tuesday, finishing third in the 100 metres medley. Sweden's Therese Alshammar brought the crowd to their feet as she broke the world women's 50 metres butterfly record.Alshammar clocked 24.46 seconds, reducing her previous mark of 24.75, also set in Durban last month.Chinese women chipped in with two world records.Liu Zige broke the 200 metres butterfly world record, clocking two minutes, 2.5 seconds to beat Japanese Yuko Nakanishi's previous mark of 2:03.12 set in Tokyo in February last year.Zhao Jing broke the women's 100 metres medley world record. The Chinese clocked 58.40 seconds to break Alshammar's previous mark of 58.51 set in Durban.
