BERLIN — Paul Biedermann of Germany broke Ian Thorpe's world record for the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:40.83 Sunday at the short-course World Cup meet.

Thorpe's record of 1:41.10 had stood for eight years.

"After the heat in the morning, I reckoned that I would be able to achieve a performance within a world record time," Biedermann said. "It's absolutely fantastic to set a world record in front of a home crowd. My whole family is here today."

Biedermann stayed in the pool, shouting with joy and flexing his muscles after breaking the Australian's record. He received a two-minute stand ovation from the crowd during the medal ceremony.