Ian Thorpe’s return to the pool after five years away from international competition was, as he himself had predicted, less of a bang than a whisper.
The returning Olympic champion finished in 7th place in the 100m individual medley final at the Fina World Cup in Singapore, having made the final of his first competition since retiring.
Thorpe qualified from his morning heat in second place, in 56.74sec, but despite making a considerable improvement in the final, he was outclassed by some of the younger world-class competitors, clocking a modest 56.33sec, well over three seconds adrift of South African winner and double Commonwealth champion Chad Le Clos.
The time would not even put Thorpe in the world’s top 50 on this year’s form and ranks him some four and a half seconds behind Michael Phelps, the world number one in the event this year.
However, the 29-year old was far from discouraged, claiming that for him it was a success simply to have reached the final of an unfamiliar event. Thorpe hasn’t swum in a 100metres individual medley since his schooldays.
“I’m happy with the swim, really pleased with the first 50m in particular” Thorpe said, “The butterfly was great, the backstroke was great and I was really happy with the underwater work. The second 50 can be improved but it was good to make a jump up from the morning time and in my next competition I now have something to go off.”
“I have to look where I was 12 months ago to where I am now. I’m in a final, I’m competing reasonably well, I’ve made an improvement, had a tremendous amount of support from people and with a little more time, I could have some good performances.
“I’m happy. I’m really happy to get the first one out of the way. Now I’m able to focus on improving my swimming, rather than on my first race back.”
