Clash of the waterbabies

14 April 2012

Down the final length of their close encounter, Ian Thorpe changed his normal breathing pattern so that his head would turn towards the lane inside him and he could keep a watch on Michael Phelps. More to the point, perhaps Phelps might be able to see the master and get the distinct feeling he was being toyed with.

Then, as they stroked their way to the finish line with Thorpe rippling along majestically yet seemingly with the minimum of effort, Phelps clawed back a few strokes with a burst over the last 20 metres just to remind the Australian that he too could indulge in a bit of psychological warfare.

At the end, with Thorpe having just prevailed in this semi-final by 0.43seconds, they bobbed over to each other and fist gently hit fist across the lane rope. The gesture signalled the genuine respect that exists between the two finest swimmers in the world but, in truth, what we had just seen was akin to a couple of sparring dolphins. It is tonight that they turn into sharks again. lt should be an historic treat to witness what is surely the competitive highlight of the entire Games when these freakish creatures of the water go head to head in the 200m freestyle final.

Not least because neither is certain of winning it.

After two days, the score so far is Phelps, one gold, one bronze and one world record to Thorpe's one gold. Following last night's 4 x 100m freestyle relay, in which the South Africans astonishingly smashed the world record and celebrated with the sort of charmless posing that Maurice Greene and Co indulged in at Sydney, Phelps's golden target has now been reduced to seven - he can't surpass but can still equal Mark Spitz - and Thorpe's to five.

Yet their battle for pre-eminence remains utterly compelling, especially as this will be the only time their paths will cross in an individual event here.

"I can't wait. I've always wanted to race Ian in a major freestyle race, I think it's going to be really exciting but he's the one to beat," said Phelps.

Thorpe responded: "That's very flattering. I like Michael, we're friends and I think he's one of the most talented athletes that we've seen."

Heck, they are so incredibly nice, polite and grown-up about each other that it almost makes you hanker after a bit of Connors/McEnroe bitchiness. Still, it's puffed up to be such a head-to-head epic, might they just be too pre-occupied with each other to notice the danger from without?

The laid-back figure of Pieter van den Hoogenband has been shrugging ever since he arrived here that he can't beat Thorpe these days. Then, he goes and clocks the fastest time in last night's semi-finals, followed up by a fantastic 100m freestyle relay leg of 46.79sec - over a second faster than the swims of Phelps and Thorpe - which helped bring the Netherlands a silver medal. Not that Thorpe ever believed 'Hoogie' was a spent force.

The 'Flying Dutchman' makes you laugh. He comes over like some slightly harmless Hugh Grant charmer out of the water but he will knife you in the pool.

Thorpe holds eight of the nine fastest 200m times in history but you can bet it still preys on his mind that van den Hoogenband owns the other and also beat him in front of his home fans at the Sydney Games.

The 200m freestyle is Thorpe's manor. One suspects it would be a crushing blow to him if he lost because he has tailored his training towards it this time, even to the extent that his 400m has suffered slightly.

In winning the longer event on Saturday, the 'Thorpedo' definitely laboured, although he reckoned it was only because of the pressure which had engulfed him after the messy business of his failure to qualify at the trials with his infamous false start.

It looked as if he had found a release last night as he seemed to be back to his smooth best here. Yet the pressure will surely be back on him tonight to beat a field which, also featuring Thorpe's Aussie team-mate Grant Hackett, boasts the four fastest 200m men of all-time.

In theory, Phelps, the all-rounder, can't beat these great specialists.

This is the event his coach reckoned the 19-year-old should give up for the Games because Thorpe would be too strong. Yet the best thing about Phelps is his absolute fearlessness for the fray. He's so bubbling with enthusiasm that there were times on Saturday when he almost made Thorpe seem in comparison like some careworn, seen-it-all statesman at the ripe old age of 21.

You still get the impression that Phelps, with one world record in the 400m individual medley already safely under his belt, genuinely believes anything is possible.

He doesn't have time to think about the possibility of weariness because his races just keep coming so thick and fast that this morning, he was already undergoing his sixth race in three days - the heats of the 200m butterfly.

Thorpe probably secretly irritates him with his suggestions that surpassing Spitz is out of the question for anybody.

"But I'm very supportive in Michael's quest to chase seven gold medals," insisted Thorpe. So supportive indeed that tonight the greatest swimmer of all time may well smash that quest to smithereens.

Yet it's not going to be a one-fish race nor a two-fish race. Van den Hoogenband was on the pool deck when someone shouted to ask him whether this race would be the greatest we had seen. "Ever," responded the Dutchman. And he was smiling.

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Clash of the waterbabies

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