Thorpe powers to 400m gold

AUSTRALIAN Ian Thorpe powered to 400-metre freestyle gold at the Fina World Cup last night, but missed breaking the world record by just five hundredths of a second.

Thorpe, who broke the World Cup record he set in Sydney three years ago by more than a second, destroyed his rivals, finishing in three minutes 34.63 seconds nearly nine seconds quicker than Romania's Dragos Coman in second place.

Italy's Valerio Cleri was more than 13 seconds back in the bronze medal place.