Coach confident, but Thorpe isn't

Australia's head swimming coach, Leigh Nugent, has tipped Ian Thorpe, who ended his four-year retirement last February, to cause a shock at the national trials in Adelaide by qualifying for the Games despite a string of poor performances since his comeback in Singapore in November.

Thorpe , whose five gold medals make him Australia's most successful Olympian, will begin his bid on Thursday and has entered the 100m and 200m freestyle. While he is not confident about his own chances, Nugent remains optimistic. "With someone like Ian, the history he's got and knowing his competitive capabilities, you could never write him out of the equation," he said.

"I've been around a long time. I've had a lot to do with Ian and with swimming at this level for almost two-and-a-half decades and with him, you've got to expect for him to pull something out of the bag. He just has that sort of ability."

Despite Nugent's praise, the 29-year-old's best chance appears to be in the relay, with a top-six finish in the 200m making him a contender for a place in the 4x200m team – yet even that could be beyond him, given that his best time in the 200m since his return is 1min 50.79sec at the Victoria state championships in January, a time that would have left him 12th in last year's national titles.

In the 100m, Australia's world champion, James Magnussen, Matt Targett, Matt Abood, James Roberts and Cameron McEvoy are all in better form than him. "The most realistic outcome of this is that I will most likely fail," says Thorpe. "All of the expectation, that desire to see me do well, it exists for me in a way that it doesn't exist for other people. It will probably be the last time I will be able to do this so I want to be able to make the most of it. I'll probably swim for at least a year or two after the Games."

Setbacks in Belgrade

Despite sending seven competitors to the European Wrestling Championships, Great Britain were left disappointed in Belgrade. The main British hope was the Commonwealth bronze medallist, Leon Rattigan, who was competing in freestyle wrestling's 96kg class, but he lost 2-0, 0-1, 0-1 to Bulgaria, while in the 66kg class Oleksandr Madyarchyk lost 0-3, 0-5 to Azerbaijan.

Britain's hopes took a further blow when it emerged that Ukrainians Yana Stadnik and Olga Butkevych had failed in their attempts to get British passports in time for the Games. It is a major setback as the pair were set to be the only two females in the British team, but it now seems unlikely they will be allowed to compete.