Ed Moses sets another record

American Ed Moses broke his fourth world short-course record in the space of seven days while winning the 200 metres breaststroke at the World Cup meeting in Berlin on Saturday.

Three other world records also fell in the final leg of the nine-venue series at Berlin's Europasportpark pool, venue for the European Championships this summer.

Moses clocked 2 minutes 03.17 seconds on day one of the two-day meeting, breaking the record of 2:03.28 he had set four days ago in Stockholm.

Moses' two other records were also set in Sweden, coming in the 50 and 100 metres breaststroke.

KICKS AND GLIDES

"The secret of my world record times are my strong kicks and long gliding phases," said Moses, who added the schedule was taking its toll on his energy.

"The last five metres were hell," he added. "I had no power left."

The Sydney Olympics silver medallist also saw his world 50 metres breaststroke mark broken by Oleg Lisogor of Ukraine.

Lisogor enjoyed a better start and led Moses the entire sprint, winning in a new world best of 26.20 seconds and lowering the mark of 26.28 set by Moses in Stockholm.

Moses finished second in 26.48.

"I'm a bit surprised," said Lisogor. "But to be honest, I aimed to break the world record.

"In Stockholm I was disqualified in the heats and so I wanted to get revenge in Berlin.

"Ed Moses is of course an excellent breaststroke swimmer. But I want to stand up to him."

Martina Moravcova of Slovakia also lowered the world best in the 100 metres butterfly, clocking 56.55 and improving the record of 56.56 set by American Jenny Thompson in March 2000 in Athens.

"It was only one hundredth of a second, but better this way than not at all," she said.

"It was my aim to break the record at the World Cup meets in Europe and I adjusted my training to achieve that goal."

The fourth of Saturday's world records belonged to Australia's Geoff Huegill, who broke his own mark of 22.84 in the 50 metres butterfly with a time of 22.74.

Huegill set the record in the preliminary heats and fell just short of the record in the final, where he clocked 22.80.

SURPRISE RECORD

Emma Igelstrom of Sweden set a European best of 1:06.14 in the women's 100 metres breaststroke, improving her own European record by seven-hundredths of a second.

"The record is a bit of a surprise because I hardly slept last night due to a toothache," she said.

"I was a bit tired. But I'm in good shape at the moment and I wanted to at least get near the record, despite the pain."

The Netherlands' Pieter van den Hoogenband, winner of the 100 and 200 metres freestyle gold in Sydney, finished a disappointing fourth in the 100 metres freestyle.

But the sprint specialist said he was not overly concerned.

"I'm planning to swim fast at the European long course championships here in Berlin (in July) and I'm here to see how the pool is," he said.

"I'm very happy. It's a perfect pool and in six months time I want to break the world record."

Berlin is the final stop in the World Cup series which has included other legs in Europe after three in the Americas, one in China and one in Australia.

The swimmers are competing for first prizes of $50,000 and $30,000 for second place