Thorpe continues to struggle in Beijing

Ian Thorpe continued to struggle on his return to swimming as he failed to reach the 100 metres butterfly final at the FINA World Cup meet in Beijing.

The Australian, who came out of retirement earlier this year in a bid to add to his five Olympic gold medals at next year's Games in London, was 13th fastest of 27 entrants in the heats with a time of 54.35 seconds.