Thorpe grabs second gold

Ian Thorpe took gold in a thrilling 200m freestyle final tonight – setting a new Olympic record on his way to victory and a second gold medal.

The Australian wonder was too quick for Michael Phelps, who can now no longer equal Mark Spitz’s record seven Olympic golds.

The American could finish only third behind Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband.

British hope Simon Burnett could not live with such illustrious company and came seventh.

This was supposed to be the clash of the titans, the king of the Sydney Olympics Thorpe taking on young pretender Phelps who came to Athens bidding to win eight gold medals.

In fact it was van den Hoogenband who made the early running, leading at the turn for the final 50 metres.

However, Thorpe stepped up a gear and powered ahead to touch home first, punching the air in triumph and brandishing a massive grin which was in contrast to the tears he shed two nights ago in relief at retaining his 400m freestyle crown.

Thorpe’s winning time was 1:44.71, which was 0.65 of a second outside his own world record but 0.64 of a second inside the previous Olympic record which had been held by van den Hoogenband.

Phelps, who had already seen his hopes of a record eight golds and a 1million bonus disappear, will also fall short of Spitz’s record haul.

It will be of little consolation to him that his bronze medal time of 1:45.32 was a new Americas record.

Meanwhile Burnett, a 21-yearold student from Oxfordshire, who lists Thorpe as one of his sporting heroes, said he felt better for the experience of making the final, even though he was disappointed with his time of 1:48.02.

“It was tough, I tried to be more aggressive than last night and it didn’t quite come off for me,” said Burnett.

“I was quite pleased with my time although I would have liked to have dipped under 1.48 again.

“When the names were being announced and the cheers kept getting louder that’s when it hit me. It was a real honour to be in that race and I hope I’ve got a lot of experience out of it.”