Freestyle quartet open British medal account

Britain won their first medal of the World Championships in Fukuoka last night, tying the United States for silver in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay. In front of a packed arena, buoyed by the success of the Japanese swimmers, Karen Pickering overhauled Sweden and then caught the American Courtney Shealy to put Britain on the podium. In the final stroke, both swimmers stopped the clock at 3min 40.80sec, a shade outside the British record and over a second behind the European record of 3:39.58 set by the gold medallists, Germany.

When Alison Sheppard handed to Mel Marshall, Britain were in fourth place. But Ros Brett and Karen Pickering split an impressive 54.76 and 54.67 to take the silver. "Everything just went perfectly," Pickering said. "The team worked together to put me in the perfect position and I used Sweden as the bait."

"We always wanted this and it's a dream come true," added Brett. "It was nail-biting at the end and I can't believe we've won silver." In a show of team spirit typical of the whole squad in Japan, Marshall said: "Karen's got the wisdom and the strength and I can't think of a better person to swim with."

There was disappointment, however, for Mark Foster in the men's 50m freestyle. Ranked third into the final, Foster was unusually slow off the blocks. In a race where fractions of a second are crucial, Foster was never in the race, finishing equal seventh in 22.44sec.

"I swallowed water on the second breath and one mistake can cost you a medal but you can't turn the clock back," he said. "I've got the 50 fly later in the week and I still feel I'm in the best shape of my life." His best of 22.13sec would have been good enough for silver.

That honour went to Pieter van den Hoogenband, of the Netherlands, who trailed the American Olympic champion, Anthony Ervin, by 0.07sec. Just 0.02sec behind him, Japan's Tomohiro Yamanoi and Ronald Schoeman, of South Africa, tied for bronze, as the medals were distributed to the four corners of the world.

Scotland's Olympic bronze medallist, Graeme Smith, competes for a medal in today's final of the 800m freestyle. The Australians Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett are expected to take gold and silver, but Smith's British record 7:56.73 from yesterday's heats puts him third into the final.

The Russian breaststroker Roman Sloudnov made history with a world record in the 100m breaststroke. Sloudnov is the first and only man to have broken a minute for the event and he repeated it with a stunning 59.93sec to make him strong favourite for gold in today's final.

Lining up in that final will be Darren Mew, of Bath, after recording a lifetime best of 1:01.47 in the heat before Sloudnov's world record. Mew has now eclipsed Adrian Moorhouse's best time and is closing on Nick Gillingham's British record of 1:01.33.

Rebecca Cooke finished an excellent sixth place in the 800m freestyle in a confidence booster for her 1500m later in the week.

The Australian Petria Thomas continued her country's early success as she triumphed in the 200m butterfly after a thrilling battle with Annika Mehlhorn of Germany.The Olympic bronze medallist shattered the championship record she set in yesterday's heats by more than a second to win in 2:6.73.

* The world and Olympic champion, Alexander Popov, was released from hospital at the weekend after suffering from a bout of tonsillitis. Popov was forced to withdraw from the World Championships after he picked up the throat infectionduring last week's session of the International Olympic Committee in Moscow.