The banning of hi-tech swimming outfits created ripples in international pools, but American Ryan Lochte has shown records can still tumble, write Lei Lei and Sun Xiaochen.

Nobody was quite sure what to expect in the post-hi-tech-swimsuit era until Ryan Lochte of the United States broke a world record on Thursday night.

Lochte's record was the first at the Shanghai FINA World Championships, but he started a new dawn in the sport, which other swimmers have hailed.

"It was definitely something I wanted to do. Everyone thought it was impossible (to break records) since they banned the suits," said Lochte after winning men's 200m individual medley in a new record time of 1 minute, 54.00 seconds."After (the ban), everyone said the world records wouldn't be touched again. I just wanted to show everyone that it can happen. Hopefully, everyone now can realize it's still possible and a lot more records will fall."

After an outcry at the 2009 worlds, where 43 records were rewritten, FINA, the international governing body of the sport, banned technical suits from competition as of Jan 1, 2010. Suits now must be made fully of textile material. Men's suits cannot extend past the navel or knees; women's suits can't go past the knees or cover the neck or shoulders.

The record drought comes in sharp contrast to the 255 world marks established - over long and short courses - during the rubberized-suit era of 2008 and 2009.

The only world records set since January 2010 came at the short-course worlds in Dubai in December.

Besides relay victories by the Russian men and Chinese women, Lochte set two world records at that event, during a stretch in which he established himself as the dominant American swimmer.

Lochte's remarkable performance has been hailed by other swimmers, who claim it has built their confidence to succeed without the help of technology.

"I said to my coach before the race, this is going to be the first record to be broken at this meet," said Michael Phelps, who was beaten by teammate Lochte in his favorite 200m medley, and settled for silver.

"It's something (breaking records) we are still able to do without the suits. I think we are going to start to see more (records)."

Other swimmers agree.

"Ryan was the first to break a world record here. Do you think it is really so hard to do it after the banning of the suits?" said American swimmer Adrian Nathan, who finished fifth in the men's 100m freestyle.

"You have to do something spectacular, something really great to break it out of the suits. Ryan's got it. The suits really enhanced a lot of the performances. You now have to do much better than you used to do."

The ban of the suits was applauded by coaches; even before the Shanghai worlds.

"It's the best thing that ever happened," said Australian head coach Leigh Nugent before the swimming events started last Sunday.

"People who were setting records now know the things they did were not credited to their performances. It was the suits. We have to stabilize performances and we are in the right place now," he said.

A former Chinese coach also agreed.

"It will be difficult to break a world record (without technological suits)," said Zhang Yadong, former head coach of Chinese national swimming team.

"There will be a process of adjustment without the hi-tech suits, but I don't think it will take long. The hi-tech suits only helped swimmers that had heavy body weight, but had no affect on the light swimmers."

(China Daily 07/31/2011 page8)