Wilson left with the short straw

Swimming

British swimming is not so strong that any stipulation about selection will draw too much blood. When the axe fell behind the front two in the 1500 metres in the Olympic Trials last night, however, a potential medallist was left with gaping internal wounds.

Ian Wilson, a silver medallist in the world short course championships last year, was the unlucky man who will not be going to Atlanta this summer after finishing third at Pond's Forge, Sheffield. To compound a miserable day for him, his British record was also taken by Graeme Smith with a time of 15min 03.43sec.

What hurt more was the second place of Paul Palmer, who will hope to be taking part in three events in Georgia. "I don't know why someone who will be going to Atlanta in the 200 and 400 also wants to compete in the 1500," Wilson, from Leeds, had said before the race but looked like a man who had been gazumped after it.

Palmer, realising that an Olympic medal in the 1500m might be a more viable prospect than in the shorter events, had muscled in on Wilson's distance to take the second qualifying place. It was not even a close thing, Palmer crushing Wilson by 14 seconds.

The plot was three men going for two places but Smith, a European Championship silver medallist last August, soon made that equation one out of two with a blistering start. A second up after 100 metres, he had stretched that to 10 seconds two-thirds of the way through the race. He was gambling with his stamina but it paid off.

Palmer's tactic had been to hang on to the other two and hope his greater finishing speed would carry him into the top two places. Instead he had to chase the leader, which worked in his favour as Wilson was left in the process. By the end what was potentially the most competitive race in the trials had bceome a procession, Smith winning by 15 seconds.

"I just made up my mind to go flat out and try to lose them as quickly as possible," he said. "I expected to have to break the British record to qualify."

Sarah Hardcastle was positively bullish about her chances in the women's 800m freestyle. "I believe I can win a medal," she said after qualifying to race in Atlanta with a time of 8:38.27 that was eight seconds inside the required time.

The 26-year-old from Bracknell returned to the sport in 1992 because she saw nothing at Barcelona to suggest she would be out of her depth if she resumed a career that had climaxed with two medals in Los Angeles in 1984. Yesterday, you saw why.

Seven years older than any other woman in the final, she was in a different league as well as a different generation, creating a lead of six seconds at 400 metres and half the pool by the end. As she said: "There is no one coming through to take over from me when I retire."

Mark Foster also won by a large margin given that his distance, 50m freestyle, is as much a reflex action as a race. The Commonwealth Games gold medallist two years ago, and the world short-course champion in 1993, was nearly half a second ahead of Alan Rapley in 22.74.

Sue Rolph, who qualified for the women's 100m freestyle on Thursday, will be doubling up in Georgia after winning the 50m yesterday. The 17- year-old from the City of Newcastle clocked 26.15 - her second personal best of the trials.

Results, Sporting Digest, page 31