Ian Thorpe yielded first blood to world champion Matt Welsh as he continued his bid for a record seven gold medals at the Commonwealth Games on Friday. Thorpe, chasing his fifth gold on Friday evening in the 100 metres freestyle, set the second-fastest overall time in the morning's heats for the 100 metres backstroke, the most perilous leg of his challenge.
Welsh, disqualified from Thursday's 200 metres backstroke heats for allegedly moving before the start, won the last heat of the 100 in 56.35 seconds, making sure of avoiding another disqualification as he settled for the start with exaggerated correctness.
Thorpe won the preceding heat in 56.45 ahead of England's Adam Ruckwood, who returned the third-fastest aggregate time of 56.87 as they headed for the evening's semi-finals. The backstroke final is on Saturday.
Thorpe then turned his mind to the evening's 100 metres freestyle final, starting a strong favourite after posting the fastest semi-final time on Thursday with a Games record 49.31. The 19-year-old Australian has so far won gold in the 200 and 400 metres freestyle and 4x100 and 4x200 freestyle relays and broken his own world record in Tuesday's 400.
Thorpe will also contest the 4x100 medley relay in his bid for seven golds in a single Commonwealth Games to surpass the six achieved in 1978 by Canada's Graham Smith and in 1998 by Australia's Susan O'Neill.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
