Thorpe sets world record as Smith takes bronze

Two more world records fell at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan yesterday on a night of great personal triumph for Scotland's Graeme Smith, who returned to the rostrum after four years he would prefer to forget.

As the Australians Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett battled stroke for stroke over 800 metres, Smith led the challenge for bronze, obliterating the British record to take third place in a time of 7min 51.12sec. In the race for gold, Thorpe overwhelmed his rival with a trademark gear change over the final 50m, storming to a world record 7:39.16 and his third gold medal of the championships.

Smith, 25, adds this bronze to the bronze he won at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 over 1500m. Back then the world of distance freestyle swimming was at his feet, but he has struggled to regain that form, his nadir coming last year when he could only manage a reserve place on the relay team to Sydney. On touching the wall last night Smith clenched his fists in an outpouring of excitement and frustration, thrilled that four years in the swimming wilderness was over.

"Last year, I would never have thought this was possible," he said. "I've won a medal behind the two greatest swimmers in the world. I was a bit worried by the American [Chris Thompson] in the middle, but I left him at the end and my confidence is sky high for the 1500 on Sunday. It would have been nice to have taken the European record but there will be plenty of time for that in the future." That record is held by the great Vladimir Salnikov and stands at 7:50.64.

His coach at Stockport, Dave Calleja said, "It's a great comeback for Graeme and we're very proud of him. He has showed great character in facing adversity and succeeding. It was Dunkirk spirit that brought him to this tonight. He has every chance to turn bronze into silver in the 1500 at the end of the week."

The second world record of the night came in the 200m butterfly for Michael Phelps of the United States. Phelps became the youngest men's world record holder in history last year aged just 15 and he sliced another 0.33sec from his record last night to take gold in 1:54.58.

But there was no repeat of the sub-60sec swim from Russia's Roman Sloudnov in the 100m breaststroke. In front of another packed and expectant crowd, Sloudnov could only manage 1:00.16 to take the title from Italy's fast-finishing Olympic champion, Domenico Fioravanti. Darren Mew finished a creditable seventh in a tough final.

It is therefore a buoyant British team that starts day four of the championships today. Two medals to the good, the women's 4x200m freestyle team will surely believe they, too, can stand on the podium today.

Also hoping to reach tomorrow's finals are Jo Fargus and Ian Edmond in the 200m backstroke and breaststroke respectively. Both have swum times this year that would have been good enough for medals in Sydney. When Smith returns to the water to swim the 1500m on Sunday, the British team could well be looking at its best return from a World Championships since the seven medals they won in Colombia in 1975.

In the diving, the European champion, Tony Ally, equalled his best finish at world level. The Briton took eighth place in yesterday's 3m springboard final.

* Britain and Italy have been dropped as venues for the next World Cup short-course series, which has been reduced from 10 meetings to eight.

2001-02 WORLD CUP SHORT-COURSE CHAMPIONSHIP 16-18 Nov: Rio (Brazil); 23-24 Nov: Edmonton (Can); 27-28 Nov: New York (US); 3-4 Dec: Shanghai (Chi); 7-9 Dec: Melbourne (Aus); 18-19 Jan: Paris (Fr); 22-23 Jan: Stockholm (Swe); 26-27 Jan: Berlin (Ger).