Thorpe's display of complete dominance

If there was any doubt about the genius that is Ian Thorpe, it was comprehensively dispelled yesterday by a performance of such skill and power from the 18-year-old Australian, that it left even the wisest of heads shaking in disbelief.

On the first day of swimming at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Thorpe set the 14th world record of his career to win the 400 metres freestyle. He retains the title he won three years ago, when he became the youngest men's world champion in history.

But it was the way he did it that engendered such disbelief. Swimming as smoothly as a seal in his skin-tight black bodysuit, Thorpe played with his rivals to 300m. Then the size 17 feet started to kick and he was a body length clear of the field. His final 50m was a staggering 1.25sec faster than the final 50m from his previous world record swim and he powered to gold in 3min 40.17sec. His team-mate Grant Hackett and the European champion, Emiliano Brembilla of Italy, took silver and bronze respectively.

After receiving his medal, Thorpe returned directly to the starting blocks to anchor the 4x100m freestyle relay team to gold and defeat the United States in a repeat of their memorable battle in the Olympic final last year. On this occasion, though, the US team was also beaten by the Netherlands after the Flying Dutchman, Pieter Van den Hoogenband, surged into second place. The Americans have never lost this event since the first World Championships in 1973 and, to add to their woe, they were disqualified for a false start, promoting Germany to the bronze.

On a mixed day for Britain, Mark Foster won his semi-final of the 50m freestyle and is ranked third into today's final. The double Commonwealth champion and European silver medallist is hoping to convert his short-course world record wins into a long-course success here.

Foster has the fastest start in the world and used his early speed to relax before applying the pressure at 35 metres.

"It's all going to plan," he said. "I'm pleased Popov and Gary Hall Jnr aren't here. It means only three from the Olympic final are competing. The whole thing feels pretty comfortable and I feel confident," he said.

Also in a final today, in the 800m freestyle, is Rebecca Cooke. The 18-year-old from Reading is ranked fifth fastest and will use the event for invaluable experience before the 1500m on Friday.

The 1996 Olympic bronze medallist, Graeme Smith, swims in today's heats of the 800m and is back to top form after a few years he would "prefer to forget." After Thorpe and Hackett, the bronze medal place is wide open.

The Olympic champion, the 18-year-old Ukrainian Yana Klochkova, gave another exhibition swim to win the women's 400m individual medley. Fifth in the final was the 18-year-old American Kaitlin Sandeno who also qualified for today's finals of the 200m butterfly and 800m freestyle. The busiest swimmer of the championships, Sandeno raced an astonishing total of two kilometres yesterday and will race another kilometre today.

Tony Ally and Mark Shipman gave a superb performance yesterday with a consistent set of five dives in the final, taking fourth in the 3m synchro diving.

"We worked hard and it was a fantastic performance. It's just a shame there's not a medal around our necks. It looks good for the Commonwealth Games next year," Ally said.