Thorpe picks up another gold for Australia

Manchester:

Golden boy Ian Thorpe anchored the world champion Australian relay team to victory today in the Commonwealth Games 4x200 metres, collecting his fourth gold medal of the meet and remaining on track for an unprecedented seven gold medals at the Games. Thorpe was neck-and-neck with Canada's Mintenko going into the last leg, but powered to a 15 metre lead as the Aussies broke their own Games record in 7 minutes, 11.69 seconds. Canada took silver in 7:17.17 and England was third in 7:22.56. Grant Hackett led off for the Australians and gave Leon Dunne a two bodylength advantage. The Aussies maintained the gap until Canadian Mark Johnston caught up with Jason Cram going into the final leg, where Thorpe kicked in. Rick Say, who won bronze in the individual 200 meters behind Thorpe and Hackett, led off for the Canadians to set them up for silver. Thorpe led qualifiers into the final of the individual 100 freestyle final earlier today, twice swimming under 50 seconds and setting a Games record in the semi-finals.(AP)