Mark Foster missed selection for the 2004 Olympic Games by 0.01sec. Last night he raced 0.06sec inside the time required to take him to Beijing 2008, by which time he will be 38 and at his fifth Games.

That would be a record for a British man in the pool, but he is not there yet. This morning he will contest a 50 metres freestyle final at Ponds Forge, Sheffield, in which the average age of his seven rivals is 22. Foster has to finish in the top two to win his ticket to China. He will then make up his mind whether to accept nomination. “I would be stupid to say ‘no’ but I only want to go if I can be competitive,” he said. Foster swam 22.29sec last night; the world record was taken down to 21.28sec by Eamon Sullivan, of Australia, last week.

Foster’s main aim is to end his career in the 25 metres pool on a high at the World Short Course Championships next week when Manchester plays host to the first global swimming event to be staged in Britain since the 1948 Olympics in London.

When the Games first came to London, in 1908, the pool was designed by William Henry, who was 47 when he raced to a bronze medal at the 1906 Intercalated Olympics as a member of the Britain 4 x 250 metres relay squad. The first British swimmer to reach five Olympic Games was Alison Sheppard in 2004. Foster would be the first man.

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