Thorpe out on his own

Ian Thorpe: There are not enough superlatives

BBC Sport's Bob Ballard assesses the impact made by Australia's Ian Thrope on the first day of competition.

They will need a new dictionary to contain all the superlatives that will be lavished on Ian Thorpe after a first day in the Olympic pool that rewrote swimming history.

Such is the domination in the freestyle events by the 17 year old from Sydney, that he was expected to have just one opponent in the final, the clock, and so it proved to be.

But even more exceptional that his new world record in the 400 metres freestyle of 3 mins 40.59, was the "Thorpedo's" final 50 metres in the men's 4 by 100 metres freestyle relay final for Australia.

Less than an hour after his solo triumph Thorpe was back in the pool anchoring the home team, but with a length to go he seemed to have given second best to Gary Hall jnr. of the United States.

With 25 metres left, the man with the size 17 feet just accelerated effortlessly and passed Hall in the final few metres to help Australia to another world record of 3.13.67, surpassing the previous best set by the American in Atlanta four years ago by a second and a half.

Delight

The delight on the faces of team-mates Michael Klim, Chris Fydler and Ashley Callus was there for all of the 17,500 crammed into the Aquatuc Centre in Sydney, the gloomy faces of the Americans as they collected their silver medals spoke volumes as well.

The USA had taken the previous gold in the women's event - clocking yet another world record with the quartet of Amy Van Dyken, Dara Torres, Courtney Shealy and Jenny Thompson finishing first in 3 mins 36.61/

Britain's women were just over two tenths of a second away from bronze - setting a new British and Commonwealth record of 3.40.31...Karen Pickering starting things off and Sue Rolph with an exceptional 54.66 final leg finishing tantalisingly close to a podium position in 5th place.

Yana Klochkova of Ukraine was also in world record breaking form in taking the first gold of the swimming events the 400 individual medley.

Disappointment

The biggest disappointment of the day from a British perspective was the form, or lack of it, of Paul Palmer. Last year's European champion in the 400 metres freestyle, and silver medallist in Atlanta four years ago, told me he knew he wasn't in contention for the final after the first 100 metres of his heat swim.

Palmer normally produces a fast finish, but his race was all up with two lengths left and his 10th place finish was well below his and the GB swim team's expectations.

The University of Bath swimmer may be able to make amends when he goes in the 200 freestyle on Sunday where he'll be up against a certain Ian Thorpe once again.