Aussies ready to hail Thorpe as champion

Sydney: Australia are ready to hail Ian Thorpe as one of the biggest winners in Olympic swimming history on the opening day in Sydney's Homebush Bay pool on Saturday.

The 17-year-old prodigy, powered by size 17 feet, has exerted such domination in the 400 metres freestyle this year that he could win the event by the largest margin in nearly a century.

Nobody has won the 400 freestyle by more than 3.1 seconds since English cotton mill worker Henry Taylor prevailed in the 440 yards equivalent over Australian Frank Beaurepaire by 7.4 seconds at the London Olympics of 1908.

Thorpe posted a world record three minutes 41.33 seconds in the Sydney Olympic pool in the Australian selection trials in May and the nearest anyone has got to that time this year is the 3:47.18 swum by Klete Keller in the US trials in August.

Thorpe's illustrious compatriot Murray Rose, the only man to have won the event twice, produced matching winning margins of 3.1 seconds to clinch gold in Melbourne in 1956 and Rome in 1960, with Japan's Tsuyoshi Yamanaka claiming the silver each time.

Nobody looks remotely capable of denying Thorpe his place as Olympic champion in an event, whose past winners include Johnny "Tarzan" Weissmuller and Buster Crabbe, who both found fame in Hollywood.

Gold medal shots

Thorpe is overwhelming favourite for three golds in the eight-day swimming programme - 200, 400 and 4 x 200 freestyle relay - and will be up for another medal on the opening day in the 4 x 100 metres freestyle relay, in which the United States are front-runners.

Thorpe himself wisely refuses to regard himself as certain to win the 400. "I just hope that I'm going to be able to handle the conditions and get the best performance out of myself," he said earlier this week.

But his rivals are already scattering. World champion Michael Klim pulled out of the 200 to concentrate on better gold medal chances elsewhere.Grant Hackett, who took fellow Australian Klim's place in the 200, says he will use the 400 as a warm-up for his main event, the 1,500.

Hackett, overtaken by Thorpe's fierce finishing kick in the 1998 world championship 400 freestyle final in Perth, came in nearly 10 seconds adrift in the 400 at the Olympic trials.

Japan's Yasuko Tajima and Ukraine's European champion Yana Klochkova are leading contenders for the women's 400 metres individual medley crown, the evening's only other individual event final.

The United States should collect the two other titles in the session - the men's and women's 4x100 metres freestyle relays.

World record holders

World record holders Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands and Roman Sludnov of Russia will also be in action on the first day in events - 200 metres and less - which go to semi-finals, with finals on the following day.

De Bruijn, who has set seven world records and equalled one this summer, goes into the women's 100 metres butterfly about a second quicker this year than her nearest rivals, the vastly experienced Americans Dara Torres and Jenny Thompson, the World Champion.

Sludnov set a world record of 1:00.36 for the men's 100 metres breaststroke in June and the one-minute barrier could well be breached. American Ed Moses, Sludnov's main rival, has threatened to swim it in 59 seconds to upstage Thorpe.

"Going under the minute would be a good way to start the fire," Moses said at the US pre-Olympic training camp in Brisbane last weekend. "There's going to be a big surprise. Australia has the 400 metres freestyle with Ian Thorpe and I can nullify that swim."



(c) Reuters Limited.