Swimming: Night Thorpedo missed the target

Prince of the pool looks a mere mortal as rough edges in technique undermine quest for seven golds

Even in defeat, Ian Thorpe enhanced his reputation. Though his quest for a record seven Commonwealth gold medals ended in the 100m backstroke in the city of Manchester pool last night, the Australian won a silver in only his third race in a new discipline, which was almost as scary as his clean sweep in the freestyle sprints completed on Friday or, come to think of it, any other of his growing list of achievements.

Victory went to Matt Welsh in a time of 54.72sec, consolation for his disqualification from the 200m backstroke. But it might be the likeable backstroke specialist who has the most to ponder after Thorpe's impressive debut. The Manchester crowd, though, witnessed the rare sight of Thorpe claiming a colour other than gold. The boy is human, after all, and still full of charm. At his instruction, his bouquet of flowers was sent to Sophie, Countess of Wessex.

Whether this is the start of the challenge for Mark Spitz's seven Olympic golds or just another temporary diversion will be the subject of fierce debate. "I'll probably keep going with it to the Olympics," Thorpe said. "But I might pick something up or I might drop something off. Who knows?"

It was not the time or place for a career-changing decision, but if Thorpe can flip over and, with the minimum of preparation, stroke his way to the verge of world class, then anything is possible. But then we knew that anyway.

"I was overwhelmed by the way I swam," said the 19-year-old, who clocked 55.38sec. "It was exactly how I wanted to swim the race. I'm not in Matt's field as a backstroker and I never have been." But he might yet be. "The hardest thing has been answering all the questions about Ian," said Welsh. "But he came to my party. This has been my speciality for a few years now. I love this event."

While Thorpe devotes about five per cent of his training time to backstroke, Welsh swims little else. This was the 12th in a sequence of 13 races, which will end with his sixth gold in the medley relay today. In one 25-minute whirl on Friday, he won a fifth gold medal in the 100m freestyle, took to the rostrum for the medal ceremony and filed straight back out for the semi-final of the 100m backstroke. Late evening found him back in the interview room, answering questions about his Olympic ambitions. The whole, minutely choreographed show resembles prize-giving day at school, with all the awards monopolised by a single star pupil.

Yet the Australian's talent for humility is every bit as remarkable as his gift in the water, so not for a moment does his domination of an evening foster resentment or jealousy.

On the contrary, everyone is drawn into the adventure. And Thorpe himself regards each night of competition as a logistical jigsaw, one part flair to nine parts method. This, remember, is the man who scheduled a 1.5km walk into his training, the exact distance from the athletes' village to the bus stop each morning.

If, in Athens two years hence, Thorpe attempts to match Spitz's 30-year-old mark, the tramp through the records here will be regarded as the genesis of an ambition, another step on the way to the due reclamation of a sporting birthright and the fulfilment of a destiny Thorpe has already addressed and acknowledged.

Four years ago, in Kuala Lumpur, he experimented with the butterfly, Spitz's alternative stroke. His diversionary stroke here has been far more promising. Just a matter, said Thorpe with only a slight degree of flippancy, of swinging the arms over in a different direction and going backwards instead of forwards.

"It's also," he added, "a matter of learning how to feel the water on backstroke. You can become complacent doing the same thing, so this is how I can improve the little things." Feeling the water, working naturally with the flow, not against it, improves Thorpe's freestyle technique, though that is not why he is swimming himself close to exhaustion.

"Can he become an Olympic-class backstroker?" says Don Talbot, the former head of Australian swimming and one of Thorpe's greatest influences. "I would never bet against it. That guy can do anything he sets his mind to, including winning seven golds at the Olympics."

On a recent visit to Australia, Sean Kelly, coach of 200m backstroke gold-medallist James Goddard, watched Thorpe train alongside Olympic 1500m champion Grant Hackett. The session consisted of 32 lengths of the 50m pool, swum at near sprint pace.

"That's incredible anyway," recalls Kelly. "But even more remarkable was the intensity of the work. Thorpe wouldn't let Hackett beat him, not on one length, and Hackett was trying everything he knew. With his backstroke, I don't think Ian's doing anything more than challenging himself.

"Backstroke keeps the back strong, it's a good recovery stroke because your face is out of the water. You can breath whenever you want and relax." Some good judges believe that the individual medley ­ breaststroke, butterfly, backstroke and freestyle ­ will eventually prove his most successful alternative.

In the meantime, at every meeting, Thorpe is learning how to pace himself, in and out of the water. Yesterday, given a free morning, he was able to take the 9am bus, 45 minutes later than normal, and watch his teammates from the athletes' seats. News of record-breaking feats by Pieter van den Hoogenband, the Olympic champion, in the European championships registered barely a flicker of interest. If there was a face to be drawn on his ambition, it would be the one he sees in the mirror.

"I cannot have many reactions to what my competitors are doing," Thorpe said. "My toughest competitor is myself. The difficulty for me is to swim well across the board, to work out the right preparation when one moment you're up for a sprint race, then an endurance race, and you're doing one after the other in a matter of minutes. Physically, I'm starting to break down a bit now. A few small elements, nothing serious. Mentally, I'm just as excited and just as determined in the backstroke as any other race."

There could have been many reasons for Thorpe to miss an interview on Friday evening at the end of a taxing week. But keeping his date with the media is part of the job, a chore he undertakes with articulacy and good grace.

Thorpe wants to be remembered as the greatest freestyler in history. The argument is pretty well settled. From Manchester, Thorpe will be turning to new and distant horizons. Thorpe arrived as a phenomenon, but the outlines of a legend were apparent in his departure.

Diary of a swimming phenomenon

Gold No 1 and No 2: 400m freestyle, 4 x 100m freestyle, Tuesday

The first world record of the evening falls at 7.38pm, Ian Thorpe, naturally, winning the 400m free in 3min 40.08sec with Grant Hackett three seconds behind. Less than an hour later Thorpe is accepting his second gold, having anchored the 4 x 100m Australians to victory in 3:16.42, a Games record. "I came here relaxed,'' he says. "And the crowd were a great help."

Gold No 3: 200m freestyle, Wednesday

Another race, another Games record. Hackett is again second, the rest nowhere as Thorpe takes 1:44.71 to win. "I'm a bit disappointed. I swam well, but was not 100 per cent,'' he said.

Gold No 4: 4 x 200m freestyle, Thursday

No anxious moment as Thorpe finishes what Ashley Callus starts by anchoring the relay quartet to gold. The time of 7:11.69 is a Games record. "I feel a lot better, a lot fresher,'' he says. Oh yes, he also breaks the Games record in the 100m freestyle semi-finals. A routine day at the office, then.

Gold No 5: 100m freestyle, Friday

Callus chases home Thorpe, who touches in 48.73, a Games record, but he hints that he may be human. "My body is starting to break down at this stage," he says.

Silver No 1: 100m backstroke, yesterday

Shock, horror, the great one is beaten, by Matt Welsh. Actually, the result is widely predicted. "I've never focused on seven golds, I concentrated on seven races," Thorpe said. Seven can wait, probably until Athens 2004.