Italy’s Federica Pellegrini after setting a world record during the 200m freestyle semi-finals in Rome on Tuesday. (AFP)

Rome: Germany’s Paul Biedermann handed Michael Phelps his first major individual loss in four years — and snatched away his world record, too — with a stunning win in the 200-metre freestyle at the World Swimming Championships on Tuesday.

Three other world records were set as well.

Virtually unknown outside of his native country before this meet, Biedermann has now erased Ian Thorpe from the record book with a win in the 400m free and knocked off the eight gold medal-winning Olympian — all in the space of three days.

Both triumphs are sure to stir up even more debate about the high-tech bodysuits that are being banned by the sport’s governing body beginning in 2010. Biedermann wore an Arena X-Glide, one of those polyurethane suits that is generally considered faster than the Speedo LZR Racer, the once-revolutionary suit Phelps wore.

Biedermann even conceded after his 400m free win that the suit made him two seconds faster.

Phelps was ahead off the blocks, but Biedermann surged into the lead by the first flip and steadily extended his advantage. By the finish, he was a full body-length ahead of Phelps.

While Biedermann celebrated his time of 1:42.00, which knocked off Phelps’ world mark of 1:42.96 from the Beijing Olympics, the American stared at the scoreboard for a few seconds, then headed toward the side of the pool without acknowledging the swimmer who had just handed him his first big individual loss since July 30, 2005, at the World Championships in Montreal.

“Theoretically, that was a pretty good swim for me, three-10ths off my best time after taking six months off,” said Phelps, referring to his layoff after the Olympics. “I mean, I’m not happy, but I mean I know I didn’t train much this year. For right now, I’ll take it. But I’m not pleased.”

Britain’s Gemma Spofforth set the 13th world record of the Championships, beating Russia’s Anastasia Zueva in the 100m backstroke.

Spofforth rallied on the return lap for a finish of 58.12 seconds, knocking off Zueva’s record of 58.48 that was set in the semi-finals. Zueva also went under the previous mark, but her time of 58.18 was only good enough for a silver medal.

South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh set the 14th world record in the semi-finals of the 50m breaststroke, a non-Olympic event.

Van der Burgh bobbed up and down over one length of the pool to finish in 26.74 seconds, eclipsing the record of 26.89 set by Brazil’s Felipe Franca da Silva two months ago.

Meanwhile, Italy’s Federica Pellegrini set her second world record of the Championships and the 15th overall, equalling the number from the meet two years ago.

Pellegrini, who already set a record in the 400m freestyle, took down the mark in the 200m free in a semi-final heat. The time of 1:53.67 broke her own record of 1:54.47 set in March.

The record-breaking has now matched the 2007 worlds in Melbourne — and this is only the third day of an eight-day meet. (AP)