Breaking news from Australian Swim Team on Facebook:
“Australia’s greatest Olympian, Ian Thorpe, has clocked the 12th fastest time from the 200m freestyle semi-finals, he’ll miss the final tomorrow night but has the 100m freestyle to come…”
The splits tell their telling tale 24.77 – 27.42 – 28.54 – 29.18 = 1:49.91
Courier Mail has this analysis from Thorpe himself:
“I’m terribly disappointed with that, I had a really good heat swim and I thought I could swim a lot quicker,” Thorpe said.
“The last 100 was a struggle, I’m not sure why.
“This was slower than what I swam this morning, probably the inexperience of racing in the last 18 months held me up.
“The fairytale has turned into a nightmare.
“I’m really grateful for everyone’s support, they’ve been great.
“Hopefully I’ll be faster (in the 100m).”
