Jensen fastest in 400 freestyle heats

By Julian Linden

BEIJING (Reuters) - American Larsen Jensen, cashing in on the absence of Ian Thorpe, set the fastest time in the men's 400 meter heats on Saturday to secure his place in the centre lane for Sunday's Olympic final.

Jensen won his heat in three minutes 43.10 seconds, to qualify ahead of China's Zhang Lin (3:43.32) and South Korea's Park Tae-hwan (3:43.35) and set the stage for an exciting final with the first five qualifiers separated by less than one second.

"That was a relatively good result," said Park, who became the first South Korean to win a world swimming title when he won in Melbourne last year. "I'll have to wait and see what I can do tomorrow, I'll be giving it my best."

Australia's Grant Hackett, who finished second to the now retired Thorpe at the last Olympics in Athens, was fifth overall after winning his heat in 3:44.03.

Thorpe was the undisputed king of the 400 for most of the past decade, winning every major event he entered between the 1998 world championships and 2004 Athens Games but his retirement in 2006 has left a logjam of contenders hoping to fill the void.

"Just look at how close it is. It's anybody's at this stage," Hackett said.

"It's a matter of doing everything right between now and then.

"It was a fast qualifying time for the eight people in the final, it's going to be interesting tomorrow morning."

(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)

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