Swimming: Thorpe content with slow start

The five-time Olympic gold medallist, Ian Thorpe, failed to reach the final of the 100m freestyle at the Tokyo World Cup (AFP)

Australia's Ian Thorpe insists he is "comfortable with where he is at" despite being well off the pace on his comeback to competitive swimming.

The five-time Olympic gold medallist failed to reach the final of the 100m freestyle at the Tokyo World Cup meeting on Saturday.

He then placed 26th in heats for the 100m butterfly yesterday, despite shaving nearly a second off his time from his efforts in Beijing earlier this week.

After clocking 54.35 seconds in Beijing, Thorpe touched in 53.59 in Tokyo, but was still more than two seconds adrift of the 51.39 of the fastest qualifier, Takeshi Matsuda of Japan.