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Swimming: Thorpe Leads Big Guns Australian star Ian Thorpe set the quickest time in the 200m freestyle heats as the four fastest men in history cruised into the semi-finals. Thorpe clocked one minute 47.22 seconds in the eighth and last heat with reigning champion Pieter van den Hoogenband 0.10 seconds behind. US sensation Michael Phelps, chasing a record eight golds, also went through, along with Australian Grant Hackett. Britain's Simon Burnett qualified for Sunday night's semi-finals in 1:48.68. "I'm very pleased, it was a morning swim and I was just off my best," ," said 21-year-old Burnett from Oxford. "I'm very pleased to get in there, it was a perfect heat with the big guys swimming big times but I was able to hang on and ride their waves." Thorpe's time was more than three seconds outside the world record he set at the 2001 world championships, but still enough for him to book his place in the most anticipated race of the Olympics. Phelps, who broke his own world record to win the 400m individual medley on the opening night of competition, won his heat in 1:48.43 but was fifth overall. US head coach Eddie Reese confirmed shortly after seeing the times from the heats that the 19-year-old would swim the 4x100m relay final. He will join Jason Lezak and Ian Crocker, first and second at the US trials, and Neil Walker, whose split in the preliminaries was 48.16. The United States qualified second on 3:15.83 in the heats, but it was South Africa who set the blistering pace on Sunday morning. Roland Mark Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend and Ryk Neethling qualified first with a time of 3:13.84, less than two-tenths of a second outside the world record of 3:13.67. "If we can do the same thing tonight, that would be absolutely amazing," said Ferns. Italy were third in 3:16.18. Australia made the final in sixth on 3:17.64. Schoeman led off with 48.38, less than half a second off the world record held by Van den Hoogenband and South Africa were never challenged. Deep squads such as Australia and the United States usually use second-tier swimmers to reach the final and rest faster athletes. Who Are We ? | About THISDAYOnLine.com | THISDAY People | Contact Us © Copyright 2000 Leaders & Company Limited

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