SHANGHAI - The "human fish", also known as Michael Phelps, edged out his rivals over the final 50m to claim his first gold medal of the Shanghai World Championships in the 200m butterfly on Wednesday.

Phelps, who finished in one minute, 53.34 seconds, outperformed Japan's Takeshi Matsuda by 0.67 sec while China's Wu Peng finished third (1.33 sec behind the winner).

"My first worlds title in this event came in 2001. It's been 10 years and I've been able to keep (the title) straight through. I felt like kind of getting back (to top form) tonight," the American said.