BBC SPORT | Other Sports | Smith back from the doldrums

Commonwealth Games, European Championships and another Olympics have come and gone without so much as a sniff of a medal.

The lowest ebb came last year when he failed to swim the qualifying time for Sydney. He was not even included in the 4x200m freestyle relay team and had to look on for the whole eight days of competition.

After such a crushing blow retirement was surely never too far away from his thoughts.

But a new year has brought new challenges and he has risen to them with aplomb.

A string of impressive 800m swims and a 1500m that came close to the British record have galvanised a flagging career.

Even so this bronze medal was beyond his wildest dreams.

"I didn't think this was possible," Smith said. "My confidence had hit an all-time low with the Olympics last year, but I was coming here confident after good swims in Manchester and Glasgow.

Encouraging signs from Mew
Signs of hope from Mew in the breaststroke
"Getting a medal behind two of the greatest swimmers in the world is a huge bonus for me.

"I can go into the 1500 at the end of the week and enjoy it."

And what about his time of 7 minutes 51.12 seconds? A whole five-and-a-half seconds inside his previous British record.

"I think the European record is 7.50 so it would have been nice to break that," he said. "I just feel supremely confident again now."

Aside from Smith's heroics the rest of the day was very poor from a British perspective.

Encouraging signs for Mew

Paul Palmer did not live up to expectations in the 200m freestyle, finishing 10th overall in the semi-finals, which is a worry for the relay squad.

Jaime King will not want to see a video of her swim in the semis of the 200m breaststroke. After an encouraging first 50 she faded badly in the last 100 and finished last.

Neil Willey, like training mate Mark Foster, is a frustrating swimmer. A great junior, he has not fulfilled his promise and went out at the semi-final stage of the 50m backstroke.

However there are encouraging signs for Darren Mew.

Van Der Hoogenband will race against Thorpe
Van Der Hoogenband can upset Thorpe
True, he only finished seventh in the final of the 100m breaststroke. But his first 50 in the heats, semi-finals and finals have all been good, and he will now join James Gibson in the sprint event later this week.

Aside from the Brits, the day, of course, belonged to Ian Thorpe.

Three down, four to go in terms of gold medals for the Australian.

He overpowered Grant Hackett in the last 50 of the 800m freestyle but his next test will be particularly difficult.

The 18-year-old is up against Pieter van den Hoogenband in Wednesday's 200m freestyle final. And the question in Fukuoka is can the Dutchman end the Thorpedo's run?

Do not say it too loudly in the presence of the green and gold followers, but I take Hoogie to repeat his performance in the Olympic final - and claim back the world record in the process.


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