Swimming: Australians surge towards huge total

Ian Thorpe collected his fourth gold medal yesterday and set himself up to win another today in his campaign to capture seven in total.

The Sydney teenager anchored the Australian men's 4x200m relay team to an easy victory after setting the fastest qualifying time for today's 100m freestyle final on another successful day for Australia's powerful team.

Australia won five of the nine finals yesterday and probably would have won another if Matt Welsh had not been disqualified from the men's 200m backstroke for a false start in his morning heat.

Welsh, who won gold in the 50m backstroke on Thursday, immediately protested, but the appeal was rejected, despite his insistence that the video evidence proved his innocence.

The gold eventually went to England's James Goddard in 1m 59.83s, almost 2s outside Welsh's Commonwealth record.

It was one of four golds won by England to take their three-day total to six.

Sarah Price won the women's 100m backstroke in 1m 01.06s, Adam Whitehead took the men's 100m breaststroke in 1m 01.13s and the English quartet of Karen Legg, Georgina Lee, Joanna Fargus and Karen Pickering won the 4x200m relay.

The remaining five finals all went to Australians, who have won 11 of the 19 titles decided so far.

Teenage sprinter Jodie Henry, competing in her first big international meeting, captured the women's 100m freestyle in 55.45s, and team-mate Leisel Jones claimed her first international title by winning the women's 200m breaststroke.

Jones, a silver medallist in the 100m at the Sydney Olympics and last year's world championships in Fukuoka, took gold in 2m 25.93s.

"My first international gold feels fantastic. It was good to get out of the silver bracket," she said.

World champion Geoff Huegill out-touched South African Roland Schoeman to win the 50m butterfly final in 23.57s, just 0.13s outside his world record, and Ben Austin captured the men's 50m freestyle for disabled athletes, who are being included in the official medal standings for the first time.

There was little doubt about the result of the men's 4x200m once Grant Hackett, Leon Dunne and Jason Cram opened up a commanding lead.

Thorpe immediately widened the gap further, cruising away to victory in 7m 11.69s, more than 5s clear of the Canadians.

With the Australian medley relay expected to take gold on Monday, the 19-year-old's biggest obstacle to winning seven remains tomorrow's 100m backstroke, when he tackles world champion Welsh.

* Three New Zealanders, Jonathan Winter, Hannah McLean and Cameron Gibson, who reached finals in their specialist events, all failed to match their best times.

In the men's 200m backstroke, Gibson finished sixth, improving his semifinal qualifying place of seventh, McLean held her sixth place in the 100m backstroke and Winter held his seventh ranking in the 50m butterfly.

- REUTERS

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