August 12, 2008	Tuesday	Sha'aban 9, 1429

BEIJING, Aug 11: Australian Eamon Sullivan sent out a loud and clear message to his rivals with his world record lead-off relay swim that he’s the one to catch in the sprint events at the Beijing Olympics.

The 22-year-old Aussie speedster struck a psychological blow ahead of Tuesday’s heats of the 100-metres freestyle when he sliced 0.26sec off French adversary Alain Bernard’s world mark lowering it to 47.24sec.

Sullivan, who now holds both the 50m and 100m freestyle world records, has been engaged in a world record frenzy with the big Frenchman this year, and they will likely be squaring off in Thursday’s final.

Throw in two-time defending champion Pieter van den Hoogenband, world champion Filippo Magnini, US relay hero Jason Lezak and European championship runnerup Stefan Nystrand and the pace will be well and truly on.

Dutchman Van den Hoogenband has the extra incentive of becoming the first man to win three consecutive events at the Olympics after winning in Sydney and Athens.

Sullivan has set the new benchmark with his superlative effort in Monday’s epic 4x100m freestyle won in world record time by the Michael Phelps’ led Americans.

“I have a lot of work to do, I have to find some more areas to work on and push the bar up higher,” Sullivan insisted Monday.

“Over the last four years I have never seen such a large group of swimmers compete against each other and that competition has made the times drop steadily.

“This group of guys have been racing each other for years now in all the big competitions.

“We are all pushing each other on and you know you have to produce something special every time you race and to keep bettering the world records and times and finding new ways to go faster.”Phelps gets another chance to increase his gold medal tally in the 4x200m freestyle relay, starting with Tuesday’s heats.

The American superstar claimed his second gold medal when he was part of the United States’ stirring finger-tip victory over France in the 4x100m freestyle relay final on Monday.

Phelps started off with a world record in the 400m individual medley on Sunday and defending champions United States will be favourites to win the 4x200m relay ahead of Australia, Canada and Italy.

Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima will set out to clinch the breaststroke double at the Beijing Games after his 100m world record on Monday.

Kitajima successfully defended the title he won in Athens four years ago by swimming 58.91sec and will likely face his biggest threats from Norway’s Alexander Dale Oen, Hugues Duboscq of France and Australian Brenton Rickard.

Kitajima’s path to gold was made a little easier with the failure of American rival Brendan Hansen to qualify for the event at the US trials.

Australia’s world champion and world record holder Jessicah Schipper is the one to beat in the women’s 200m butterfly.—AFP