No luck for Britain

Britain's dejected 4x200m team

Olympic silver medallist Sharron Davies witnesses Britain going close to breaking their medal duck in the pool and calls for a change in the rules governing false starts as one swimmer is forced to compete on his own.

It was so disappointing for the British men that they just missed out on a medal in the 4x200m relay and it was very difficult to go and interview them straight afterwards.

They'd broken the British record by seven seconds but what they wanted was a medal not only for themselves and the team, but also for the British public.

If you had told the guys that they could swim 10 seconds slower and pick up a medal then they would have settled for that. Breaking the record offered them some consolation but in many ways it was very similar to the women's team.

We just don't seem to be enjoying any luck as the search for a medal goes on.

But we shouldn't forget who they were up against. They did have to take on the flying Dutchman, Pieter van den Hoogenband, and it had nothing to do with Jamie (Salter) that we just missed out.

Stephen Parry has time on his side

The Dutchman had already made his mark on Tuesday's action by setting a new world record in qualifying for the 100m freestyle final. But I think that record is going to be in serious danger in the final with the fastest field ever assembled coming together.

Stephen Parry may have come into the Olympics thinking that if he could swim his best time he had the possibility of picking up a bronze, but the good thing about Stephen is that he has improved massively.

Learning curve

He's still very much on a learning curve, but he's not finished yet and there will be plenty more competitions for him.

Once again Tuesday was Australia's night in the pool, as I had predicted. A year ago nobody would have thought that Susie O'Neill could have performed like she did - she hasn't even swum that many 200m freestyles.

Eric Moussambani of Equatorial Guinea certainly caught the imagination of the crowd with his lone swim in the 100m freestyle. You wondered if he was ever going to finish!

Moussambani came over and spoke to everyone after his race and though he could only speak through an interpreter he was clearly revelling in the whole situation.

He doesn't have a coach and he doesn't have access to a pool on the same basis as other competitors. But it's part of what the Olympics are all about for him to have his chance to shine. It's just a shame they had to take other competitors out of the action.

The false start rule in swimming is a ridiculous one that should be changed. The fact that you can be thrown out for just toppling into the pool is very unfair on the competitors.