American Larsen Jensen was fastest into Sunday's men's 400-metres freestyle final at the Beijing Olympics but less than a second separated the leading five medal contenders including Australian Grant Hackett. Jensen topped Saturday's qualifiers with a time of three minutes 43.10 seconds to shade China's Zhang Lin (3:43.32) and South Korean youngster Park Tae-hwan (3:43.35) in a competitive heat.
Russian Nikita Lobintsev was a tenth of a second away in fourth quickest ahead of Hackett, the silver medallist behind compatriot Ian Thorpe in this event at the 2004 Athens Olympics. "Just look at how close it is, it's anyone's at the moment and it's just a case of doing everything right on the day," Hackett said.
"There wasn't much between us, so it's going to be an interesting final tomorrow morning. I feel happy with that, it was good, comfortable, with a fast qualifying time." Jensen qualified for the Beijing Olympics by winning the 400m event at the US trials in Omaha where he set an American record.
"Park went pretty fast, it was probably his best time or right on it," Jensen said. "I knew I'd have to do the same thing to take it back in my heat. "I hope for the best tomorrow morning. I'm going to have a double shot espresso coffee and I'll be ready." Park, 18, who became South Korea's first swimming world champion when he stormed to victory in the 400m free at Melbourne last year relegating defending champion Hackett to third, was satisfied with his effort.
"It was a relatively good performance, but I will have to wait and see how it will go now," said Park, who was shaded by Zhang in his heat by just four-hundredths of a second. Zhang shaved more than a second off his personal best time, posting an Asian record of 3:43.32, and thrilled the crowd with his heat win over Park.
"Actually, I thought about it before the competition. I'm in the same heat with Park Tae-hwan and in the next heat there will be Grant Hackett, so I just have to try my best. Otherwise, I might not even make the final," Zhang said. Hackett has won three gold and two silver medals at the previous two Olympics and is the most decorated Australian in world championship history with 18 medals - 10 gold, six silver and two bronze from five meets.