Thorpe world record habit to kick-start PanPacs

Robert Smith, Agence France-Presse, Yokohama, Japan

Swimming wonder Ian Thorpe makes a habit of smashing world records and the Aussie giant is expected to break another one in his first event at the Pan Pacific Championships in Yokohama, Japan, on Saturday.

The world's greatest swimmer so much dominates his sport that the interest is in whether he shatters a world record rather than who he beats that makes him such a phenomenon.

The 19-year-old Sydneysider, whose adoration here borders on Beatlemania, kicks off Australia's challenge for world swimming supremacy against the United States, smarting over their 13-9 gold medal loss to the Australians at last year's world championships in Fukuoka.

The Americans, led by new world record holders, Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin, will be determined to trump the Aussies in the Yokohama pool over the six days of competition and world records are expected to tumble.

The story may be whether Thorpe does not break the world record in the 400 meters freestyle on Saturday, given his knack of reeling off new standards in his opening swims at meets.

Thorpe did that at the last PanPacs in Sydney in 1999, the 2000 Australian Olympic trials, the 2000 Sydney Olympics, last year's world championships and last month's Manchester Commonwealth Games.

Thorpe emerged from the Commonwealth Games with six gold medals, a world record and two more personal bests and an unprecedented Commonwealth freestyle treble.

The Australian men are expected to sweep the individual and relay freestyle events, maybe at risk in the 100m against the US pair of Anthony Ervin and Gary Hall, and in butterfly and backstroke they are also strong.

The American women may prove too strong in their match-up with the Australians, although at last year's worlds the Aussie girls won four gold to the USA's three. China and Japan will also have a say in the carve-up of the women's medals.

If the Australians are expecting to put one over the Stars and Stripes in Yokohama then they are sending out mixed signals.

The Americans put in some sensational times at last week's national championships in Florida with Phelps (400m individual medley) and Coughlin (100m backstroke) lowering world records.

Phelps, 17, also set an American 200m medley (1min:58.68secs, the third fastest time in history) and 100m butterfly records (51.88) while Coughlin broke a 16-year-old national mark when she clocked 2:08.53 in the 200m backstroke.

Australian high performance director Greg Hodge doesn't expect the US team to slow down in Japan despite only taking a short breather after their championships.

"The United States are very good at coming into meets that are close together - there was only 35 days between their Olympic trials and the start of the Olympic swimming competition (at Sydney)," Hodge said on Thursday.

"They are very good at it because they have mainly sprint- dominated events (in the US) and can taper for a meet and hold the taper for three to four weeks.

"They will probably swim a lot faster at Japan - they are very confident they are going to do well."

Hodge's main concern is how his swimmers back up from the Manchester Games swimming program, which wound up on August 4.

"Having two competitions back to back and having what we consider the more difficult meet second has made things quite difficult for both athletes and coaches," he said.

"We've had just 10 to 12 days to prepare. This is new and uncertain territory for us, we just hope we can rise to the occasion.

"We can't underestimate the impact the (Commonwealth) Games competition had on our preparation.

"It's just a question of how well we recover from our trip overseas - one week ago we were all pretty tired but one by one they are finding renewed vigor."

While Australia may have snatched world top dog status at Fukuoka last August, Hodge has his team as underdogs for these PanPacs.

"The US are the benchmark for swimming there's no doubt about that," he said.

"We've had the world short course titles, the Commonwealth Games and now the Pan Pacs.

"Those are three tough meets with lots of travel so our aim will be to come out after the Pan Pacs with a good comparison with the US and Europe."

It all augurs as a fascinating form guide in the countdown to the 2004 Athens Olympics.