Parry's a super fly guy

So, of course Parry knew this was not the real Phelps in the semis and that the American was effectively only having a "swim down" after the big race. Yet you cannot overstate the galvanising effect on his hitherto subdued team-mates to see an old soldier like Parry downing a wonder boy out in the hinterland of lane eight at the Olympic Aquatic Centre.

He touched the wall just eight-hundredths of a second ahead of Phelps in 1min 55.57sec, breaking his own UK and Commonwealth record, to enter tonight's final as the fastest qualifier.

Phelps was suitably impressed. "After that, I'd say Stephen's definitely a contender for the gold in the final," said the 19-year-old who, after eight races in three days, admitted feeling tired and reckoned he was looking forward to his first morning off of the whole Olympics here today.

That's potentially bad news for Parry, because the American should at least feel slightly refreshed as he goes for two more golds - in the 200m butterfly and the 4 x 200m freestyle relay final - to add to the one gold and two bronze he has already annexed. "It's been much more emotionally draining than I thought," conceded Phelps.

"Before the next finals, I'm trying to replenish those emotions. Some of the pressure is off now and I can just go in and swim as fast as I can." Sounds ominous. Yet for Parry, it could be an even more emotional evening. He reckons that in life you should "dare to dream, don't fear failure and never, never give up" and, last night, it was as if he was living his motto in one swim, hitting the front from the start and never relinquishing his lead, despite tiring and struggling to hold his form over the final 25 metres. Here's a man taking the swim team's dismal start as a personal affront.

"I love swimming for Great Britain and I really do care about this team," he gushed afterwards. "We've got off to a bad start but here I showed my cards for the team. I'm sure we've got a few medal chances left in us. The medals aren't roped off but they'll have to go 1min 54sec to beat me."

They might well do, with world record holder Phelps and world No 2 this year, Poland ' s Pawel Korzeniowski, among the opposition tonight.

Manchester-based Parry was one of only a few British finalists during the Sydney debacle four years ago. As a youngster, he won bags of national titles as an age group swimmer, before becoming European Junior Champion in 1994, which helped win him a scholarship at Florida State University in America.

Since his return to the UK he has won nine medals at major long and short course championships, seven of which were won after the last Olympics.

He describes himself as "big, lively and affable", and is one of the British team's most influential and popular characters.

Should he pull the team out of its slump, he might deserve that date with Julia Roberts. With Vera along as chaperone, naturally.