Aquatics: Thorpe wins two gold medals

12.10pm

MANCHESTER - Australia's Ian Thorpe has begun his bid for a record seven gold medals at the Commonwealth Games with a world record as the opening night of the swimming witnessed two historic performances.

Olympic champion Thorpe set a record of three minutes 40.08 seconds in winning the 400 metres freestyle on Tuesday to beat his previous best of 3:40.17 which he swam in Fukuoka, Japan in July last year on his way to an unprecedented six world championship golds.

England's Zoe Baker then demolished the women's 50 metres breaststroke world record when she clocked 30.57 seconds in the semi-finals.

Nineteen-year-old Thorpe retained the title he won in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, beating his compatriot and rival Grant Hackett in the process.

"I am pretty happy with that," said Thorpe who won a second gold in the 4X100 freestyle relay at the end of the session. "I was pretty relaxed and able to swim a good time."

Thorpe is the most high-profile competitor at the Games which run until Sunday. Hackett took the silver medal in 3:43.48 while Scotland's Graeme Smith won the bronze in 3:49.40.

Thorpe duelled with Hackett for the first half of the race and then left his team mate for dead. The Australian, who had swum with superb controlled ease in the morning's heats, was almost a full second inside his world record split 100 metres from home.

But, even though he did not match the blistering finish he produced in Fukuoka, he still beat Hackett by around five metres at the touch.

"The crowd and the atmosphere generated made it easier," said Thorpe. "Once again I came close to 3:40."

Thorpe won four gold medals at the 1998 Games and would surpass fellow Australian swimmer Susie O'Neill's Commonwealth record aggregate of 10 if he added a further seven in Manchester.

New Zealand-based Baker hurtled through the one-length race to smash the previous mark of 30.83 set by South Africa's Penny Heyns at the Pan-Pacific championships in Sydney in August 1999.

After reaching Wednesday's final in style, she said: "My aim was to go for the world record in the semi-final and then tomorrow I can just aim for the gold medal.

"I felt I could do something special and I did."

Baker had broken her own European record when she swam 31.03 in the morning's heats. She held the short-course world record for the distance earlier this year but Tuesday's swim was her first world mark in an Olympic-sized pool.

- REUTERS

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