Swimming: Hardcastle heads for final in good heart

You have to go back to the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 since a British woman reached a swimming final, so Sarah Hardcastle's qualification for tonight's 800 metres freestyle was worth a serious mention in dispatches.

The Bracknell swimmer has insisted since she came out of a six-year retirement in 1992 that she would not be putting herself through the chore of training if she did not believe she could win a medal. Yesterday she reinforced that belief, winning her heat with the fourth fastest time, 8min 37.54sec.

"I'm 27, I'm the first [British] woman in a final for 12 years and it's my personal best since I came back. I'm very happy. It's quite an achievement for a little country like Britain which doesn't get much support."

Hardcastle, a silver and bronze medallist at Los Angeles, was a yard behind for the first half of the race but her metronomic stroke bears down on opponents, even illustrious ones such as the world record holder, Janet Evans. Slowly she reeled in the three women ahead of her and at the bell attacked.

"I knew if I kept on Janet's shoulder I could take her on over the last little bit. I wasn't worried about the time, getting into the top eight was the priority."

Barely a day goes by without Michelle Smith being the focus of attention. Yesterday she managed to make the world sit up by a novel method that did not involve her blazing away from all her opponents. This time she had an injury scare and a missing drugs test sample.

Ireland's double golden girl has developed a slight back strain, which probably stems from the number of times this week she has had to stoop to allow another medal ribbon to be placed round her neck. In addition her preparation methods were also questioned by her national medical officer, Dr Joe Cummiskey.

"She has an injury in the high part of her back caused by the amount of training she does," he said.

Cummiskey was also irritated that the results of a drugs test on Smith had not been announced. "These should have come out 24 hours ago," he said, "but when we ask the IOC's medical commission they say they are waiting for the right batch. We are confident Michelle is negative, she has been tested 11 times in the last 12 months."

In the heats for the 200m individual medley yesterday , she did what she has been doing all week. Won. Indeed, just about every other swimmer in Atlanta is trying to do their training as badly as she does.

Sue Rolph, for one, who was in the lane beside Smith and so was in the privileged position of watching her toes disappear into the distance. The difference on this occasion was 2.51sec, 2:16.30 against 2:18.81.

James Hickman also had the misfortune to be in the presence of greatness yesterday. The Stockport swimmer, who broke the British record for the 200m butterfly on Monday, set a personal best for the men's 100m butterfly with 53.73sec. In a heat in which Australia's Scott Miller broke the Olympic record with 52.9, he was fifth and missed the final by five places.

This meant that Nick Gillingham was the only British qualifier for last night's finals, in the 200m breaststroke. The 29-year-old winner of a silver and bronze medals in the last two Olympics was fifth fastest in 2:14.96.