Swimming: Records in the pool dry up thanks to rubber suit ban

Swimming hasn't seen a world record broken for 18 months, and, as next month's world championships in Shanghai draw nearer, the sport is starting to wonder when the drought will end.

"I think the whole swimming world has to get ready not to see another world record in the men's sprints for a long time," said Serbian butterfly specialist Milorad Cavic, the closest challenger to Michael Phelps' record eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The reason is the ban on rubberised bodysuits at the beginning of last year. Since swimmers were forced to wear textiles again, no world records have been broken in an Olympic-size 50-metre pool.

A staggering 43 world records were set at the last long-course worlds in Rome two years ago, and overall between 2008 and 2009 - the rubberised suit era - there were more than 200 set over long and short-courses.

The feeling from many swimmers and coaches is that there may only be a select few records in Shanghai, and possibly none at all in the men's events. That's because men have been penalised more under the new rules, with their suits limited to jammers covering the waists down to the knees, while women's suits stretch from the shoulders to the knees.

"I think it would have been better to go back 15 months, not 10 years," said Italian swimmer Massimiliano Rosolino, who has won 60 medals in Olympics, worlds and European championships in a career spanning three decades.

Cavic and Rosolino are not the only ones who point out that men's swimming has taken a 10-year step backward.

Dutch coach Jacco Verhaeren noted that in the 100-metre freestyle - swimming's Blue Riband event - Pieter van den Hoogenband's world record of 47.84 seconds would still stand without the seven marks set in 2008 and 2009. Cesar Cielo set the current record of 46.91 at the 2009 worlds in Rome.

"Pieter's record came 11 years ago, then were was a one-second drop, so count 10 years," said Verhaeren, who was Van den Hoogenband's coach for 15 years. "It's like mathematics."

Cavic and Rosolino both suggested changing the rules again to bring men's suits in line with the women's apparel. Making men's suits cover the chests would also appease manufacturers, who are upset that they can no longer display their logos on men's chests. Less brand-visibility, they say, means less success for the companies that support swimming the most.

Swimming's governing body FINA won't alter the rules until after the 2012 Olympics at the earliest. But FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu said: "We have to see with our swimming and coaches committees, our technical committee if something needs to be changed but the most important criteria is to have the same condition for everybody."There is also a debate over whether to have a separate list of marks achieved in textile suits.