Swimming: Two who can keep Aussies at a distance

As we keep being told: he who thinks Australian drinks Australian. But two young English-men couldn't care a XXXX for the vaunted challenge from Down Under. Led by Ian Thorpe, who has targeted a record seven of the 42 swimming titles, the Aussies will clean up, but the men's 50m and 100m breaststroke golds are not designed for export.

James Gibson and Darren Mew are the reasons why. The former is a 6ft 3in 22-year-old studying European politics at Loughborough University. Ranked No 1 in the world for 50m, he is also No 2 in the 100m, privately thankful that at last glance Japan's Kosuke Kitajima is not part of the Commonwealth family.

Mew is 6ft 4in, also 22, a student at the University of Bath, ranked second in the one-lapper and fourth over 100m. Their rivalry, friendly as it is, has helped them take the fight to the Australians, Americans, Canadians and the other nations renowned for their achievements in the water. And it's a fight they are winning, though their journey upwards and onwards is still at the embryonic stage.

"Rankings don't mean anything going into a competition like this," ventures Gibson, a touch unconvincingly. "It's how you perform on the day. I have trained really hard for this and I feel like my best is yet to come." With the 2004 Olympics an obvious target, the Manchester pool in which he established 50m and 100m Commonwealth records over a period of 24 hours in April affords Gibson the chance of his first major title.

Or titles, for a glance at those Commonwealth rankings suggests it is Canada's Morgan Knapp who can be the ham in the English sandwich.

Gibson is the less experienced of the pair at this level – just three years ago he turned to swimming, "out of boredom", though the welcome was less than enthusiastic. "I'd got a reputation for being a bit of a lad," he says. Those nights out on the town have quickly been turned into long mornings in the pool.

Mew has more of a traditional swimming pedigree. Just 18 when he took bronze over 100m at Kuala Lumpur in 1998, he was also a member of the Sydney 2000 squad, but missed out on the 100m final. "I've been with the national team for four or five years. The training I have done for these Games has been the hardest of my life, but now that I have started my taper it's coming together," he says.

England, the strongest of the home countries, send a 41-member swim team – Robin Francis, the 400m individual medley hope, withdrew during the week citing fatigue – and the squad includes Commonwealth champions in James Hickman (200 butterfly), Mark Foster (men's 50m freestyle) and Katy Sexton (200m backstroke).

Breaststroker Zoe Baker might benefit in the 50m from the fact that the race favourite, South Africa's Sarah Poewe, was injured in a road accident last Saturday, when her luxury 4 x 4 was wrecked. However, Poewe will compete, despite a painful neck and arms.

Though the sight of Australians with medals dangling from their necks will be a common one, should Gibson and Mew collect a couple of golds and silvers of their own, there will be much spilling of lager in the dormitories at Bath and Loughborough Universities. English, of course. Gibson might even join in.