Laure Manaudou, the replacement for Zinédine Zidane in French hearts, put her rivals through a mangle on her way to retaining the world 400 metres freestyle title here yesterday — and in the process crushed two British medal hopes, one in the heats, the other in the final.

The 20-year-old, who in 2004 became France’s first female Olympic champion in the pool, threw down a gauntlet in the morning heats with a 4min 5.29sec effort that shaved 0.99sec off the oldest swimming milestone — the World Championship record set in Berlin in 1978 by Tracey Wickham, of Australia, while under the watch of a young coach called Bill Sweetenham.

Sweetenham is in charge of Great Britain’s squad these days and may have wished to share a few words of advice on the consequences of such performances with Joanne Jackson and Caitlin McClatchey on a night when Manaudou set the record at 4:02.61. Although that fell 0.48sec shy of the world record she set to claim the European crown in Budapest last summer — when McClatchey and Jackson stood either side of her on the podium — Manaudou has issued an ultimatum to the rest.

It was not that Jackson’s seventh place in a personal best time of 4:07.42 was poor — it would have won a medal at any Olympic Games in history. Nor, indeed, that the 4:08.52 morning effort which saw McClatchey miss out on the final by 0.14sec was not worthy in its own way. The truth is that what was the fast lane a year ago, when McClatchey and Jackson finished one-two at the Commonwealth Games for Scotland and England respectively, is now the slow lane as Manaudou marches towards the first sub-4min swim by a woman.

Manaudou sealed victory yesterday with an opening 27.35sec split down the first 50 metres that left rivals an average of 1.5sec behind on the way to a time that is as fast as the quickest man was in 1970.

Three years on from that, at the inaugural World Championships, Rick DeMont, of the United States, became the first man to race inside 4min. Manaudou is aiming to be the first woman to do so by next year’s Beijing Olympics and will not retire until the job is done. “I have not dreamt about it but I do think of it,” she said. “I will not quit until I have managed it.”

It takes a particularly deep passion to keep up with a crusade and the only woman able to see the bubble of the champion’s feet in the temporary pool sunk into the Rod Laver tennis arena was Otylia Jedrzejczak, the Olympic silver medal-winner from Poland. Last Thursday, Jedrzejczak, the Olympic 200 metres butterfly champion, was found guilty by a Polish court in her absence of unintentionally causing the crash that killed her 19-year-old brother, Szymon. She received a nine-month suspended sentence and 270 hours of community service.

Racing in Szymon’s memory, she recorded the third-fastest time ever, of 4:04.23. Third was Ai Shibata, of Japan, who beat Manaudou for the Olympic 800 metres crown in Athens, on 4:05.19.

Both Dave McNulty and Ben Titley, respective coaches to Jackson, 20, and McClatchey, 21, believed their charges could swim 4:05. They simply fell shy of potential, as did Grant Hackett, the defending world champion over 400 metres freestyle who, after shoulder surgery, was unable to keep alive an Australian tradition. In becoming South Korea’s first world swimming champion in 3:44.30, Park Tae Hwan, 17, ended a run of five straight victories for Australia in the event since 1994. Oussama Mellouli, a US-based Tunisian, was second with Hackett third.

In the stands, the retired world record-holder, Ian Thorpe, was asked if he was pleased that the pace was a sizeable 4.22sec off his best. “I couldn’t care less,” he said. “I hope they get to that record very soon so that I can just move on.” He may be hoping against hope.

Britain’s 4 x 100 metres freestyle quartet finished last in the women’s final, while James Gibson and Chris Cook, the Commonwealth champion a year ago, missed out on a place in the final of the 100 metres breaststroke.

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