Swimming: Thorpe's gold bid survives protest

Australian Ian Thorpe’s bid for seven world championship golds was still on track today despite more controversy surrounding the timing system being used in Japan.

Germany originally protested about the final change-over by the Australian team during the heats of the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay in Fukuoka this morning.

The Germans claimed that the initial timing was illegal but that it was amended to a legal change-over on the official result.

But after several hours of viewing replays provided by Australian television, the Germans withdrew the protest and accepted that all the change-overs were correct.

If the Germans had not accepted the video evidence and seen their protest upheld then Australia would have been disqualified and Thorpe would have missed out on the chance of gold.

The 18-year-old, who already has four golds in the championships, is now free to come into the team for tonight’s final, which will take place after his individual 100m freestyle final.