Thorpe powers to 400m gold
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.
Thorpe's winning time came as a surprise to the Australian, especially following his mixed performances at the World Cup meeting in Paris over the weekend.
In the French capital, he had failed to qualify for the final of the 50m freestyle but bounced back to claim a crushing 200m freestyle victory over Dutch arch-rival Pieter Van Den Hoogenband.
Ukrainian Oleg Lisagor claimed his fourth World Cup title in the 50m breaststroke in a time of 26.68, while Britain's James Hickman took a surprise gold in the 200m butterfly.
