Swimming: Cooke destroys the field to continue England's success

Rebecca Cooke continued England's Commonwealth gold rush in the pool with one of the most convincing victories of the Games so far last night.

The 19-year-old led the race by over seven metres, with Australian Amanda Pascoe finishing seven seconds adrift to take the silver. Cooke clocked 8min 28.54sec, a best time by six seconds.

"The race went just how I wanted it," she said. "I took it out from the start and then just kept on building my lead. We're all on a high at the moment. We're exceeding expectations and everyone is so excited."

In the same final, history was made as South African Natalie du Toit became the first disabled swimmer to swim in an elite Commonwealth Games final. Earlier, she won gold in the multi-disability 100m freestyle final. Her eighth place finish in the 800m event marked an heroic achievement for the 19-year-old, who lost a leg in a car accident 18 months ago.

"I would love to have my leg back, but you have to get used to it not being there," Du Toit said. "I just have to get on with it. I don't see myself as a role model, just a normal person. If I can show what a disabled person can achieve, I'm happy to do so."

Ian Thorpe's tally of gold medals swelled to five last night, although even he will question assumptions of his invincibility after coming fourth for the first time at these Games.

His defeat however, was only in qualification at the semi-final stage of the 100m backstroke, the final of which is later today. It came minutes after he wrapped up title No 5 in the men's 100m freestyle in a new Games record of 48.73sec.

It is only Ian Thorpe who can make a sprint event appear like a stroll in the park. Black-suited, blue-goggled, Thorpe flowed effortlessly through the water, his gargantuan size 17 feet propelling him along.

"I don't really think about my technique. I work on it a lot in training, so it comes naturally in a race," he said. "I'm sprinting really well, and I'm a lot stronger than I've ever been."

Gold medal number six could come tonight in the 100m backstroke final, Thorpe's new event, although world champion Matt Welsh is a formidable opponent. Publicly, Welsh has said little about the threat of Thorpe, although he did mention he thought the teenage sensation was "a great freestyler".

But so far, like many of the Australian swimmers, Welsh's Games have not gone to plan. The Olympic bronze medallist looked jaded when he scraped victory in the 50m backstroke on Wednesday and on Thursday, he was disqualified for moving at the start of the 200m backstroke.

"In the final, I'm going to use the anger from my disqualification and put everything into it," said Welsh, after he qualified fastest for tonight's 100m backstroke final in 55.91sec. "I'm only thinking about myself, and not Thorpe. I'm doing it my way."

The 50m freestyle is a splash, a dash, then a lunge for the wall, but where there is only one length to be swum, Alison Sheppard is in her element.

Sheppard represents Scotland's best, perhaps only, chance of a gold medal in swimming, although the mere use of the word 'chance' implies she is beatable at these Games.

After her performance last night in the semi-finals of the 50m freestyle, any suggestions of her fallibility over the distance would have been deemed implausible. The 29-year-old exploded off the block to open up a lead that she never relinquished, stopping the clock at 24.79sec, just short of the Commonwealth record she set in the heats.

England's Commonwealth record holder James Gibson received the second blow of his Games when he woke yesterday to discover Ukranian Oleg Lisogor had snatched his European 50m breaststroke record in Berlin. Yesterday at the European Championships, Lisogor sensationally lowered Gibson's mark by 0.33 to set a new global standard of 27.18sec.

Tonight's 50m breaststroke final looks set to be one of the closest yet after Gibson and Darren Mew were both inside the Games record in the semi-finals, with Gibson clocking 27.56sec to qualify fastest, just 0.01 ahead of Mew.

Australia's Petria Thomas took her third Commonwealth 100m butterfly gold in 58.57sec, while Justin Norris, the 200m butterfly champion, made it three golds from four events for Australia when he took the men's 400m individual medley crown in a Games record of 4:16.95.