The 24-year-old Californian already has four gold medals and another one would equal the record of the speed skater Bonnie Blair as the most successful female American Olympian.”I think our team will do well,” she said, “because no one expects us to win any golds If we win any it will be more than anticipated. Historically the greatest swimming power, their men and women managed only two individual golds in the last two World Championships. It could be the start of a trend in Atlanta’s Olympic pool.
Le spearheads the Chinese challenge – if she fails today she will surely prevail in the 50m freestyle on Friday – that threatens to swamp the women’s swimming events. In Barcelona they won four golds; at the 1992 World Championships they took 12 of the 16 titles; a third of the top 25 places in the world rankings are filled by their women.If Lu Bin and Yang Aihua had not been banned for taking anabolic steroids their dominance would be even more complete.The Americans are desperate to see an end to the great haul of China. They added 120 before John Emburey – missing for the first five hours of play as he gave evidence in the Imran/Botham/Lamb libel case – did the trick for Northamptonshire.Emburey joined the attack and struck with his second delivery, having Carr caught by David Capel at slip.. Le, 21, will possibly win the women’s 100 metres swimming freestyle tonight but if the world record holder does not, the gold medal will still almost certainly belong to China as Shan Ying is the obvious alternative.

Twelve years on, her body now in proportion, she still operates under a nickname Now she is known as the “human harpoon”. A scrawny child, her thin frame and oversized head earned her the title “bean sprout”. They used to laugh about Le Jingyi when she was young. Nottinghamshire needed 271 to avoid an innings defeat and the opening pair put on 133 before Robinson was out for 51. Pollard survived to reach the close on 72 from a total of 152 for 1.. Round-up

Paul Weekes hit his second century of the season as Middlesex put themselves in command against Northampton- shire at Northampton.
The 27-year-old cracked 20 fours in his Championship-best 133 not out off 215 balls which guided the visitors to 232 for 3 at the close – a lead of 217 with seven wickets standing.Weekes and John Carr (57) led a fine recovery after Middlesex, who began their second innings 15 runs adrift, had lost Jason Pooley and Mike Gatting to Paul Taylor with only 21 on the board. He was doubtless grateful that Mike Watkinson was aware of Simpson’s record, the Lancashire captain allowing Gallian Jnr to continue when a declaration was possibly overdue, an indulgence the batsman seemed to acknowledge.

He overtook Simpson’s mark with two consecutive fours off Matthew Vandrau, then holed out to long-on in the same over and ran all the way to the dressing-room.Earlier in a day interrupted, amazingly, so that an over-watered old wicket end could be mopped up, Steve Titchard failed by four to make 100 and Watkinson by the same to reach 50 in a Lancashire innings that did not quite offer Gallian appropriate support. But, Glen Chapple having removed both Derbyshire openers, the home side start today well on top.n Tim Robinson and Paul Pollard led a Nottinghamshire fightback after Essex had made impressive progress at Chelmsford. His score is the fourth largest by a Lancashire player.Only 164 of Gallian’s runs came in boundaries, 33 fours and four sixes, which is a low percentage, but then he is a batsman of technical proficiency and unlimited patience rather than a great strokemaker. Indeed, there are few around better at grinding the opposition into submission, as Derbyshire know only too well.

Two years ago, when the sides met at Blackpool, Gallian scored the slowest century in Championship cricket.To his good fortune, Gallian’s father, Ray, who played club cricket for Stockport, witnessed this marathon, having come over from Australia for last weekend’s Benson and Hedges final. JON CULLEY

reports from Old Trafford
Lancashire 587-9 dec Derbyshire 78-2Jason Gallian established himself as the master of the marathon innings and the lord of Old Trafford under a scorching sun yesterday, recording the highest individual score made on this ground in the longest single innings in the history of Championship cricket.The Lancashire opener’s 312 broke the Manchester record set by Bobby Simpson, who made 311 for Australia against England in 1964, and by batting for 11 hours and 10 minutes occupied 32 minutes more than Darren Bicknell took to score an unbeaten 235 for Surrey at Trent Bridge two years ago.Gallian, born in Sydney 25 years ago but based in Lancashire, where his family roots lie, since his teens, is the 10th triple centurion in Championship cricket since the war and the first since Brian Lara’s 501 two years ago. Byas, driving imperiously through the covers, reached three figures from 183 balls with 19 fours. McGrath followed him with 14 fours and a six from 193 deliveries. Not until their partnership had become the third highest for the fourth wicket in Yorkshire’s history did James Bovill remove them both with the new ball on his way to figures of 5 for 58, his best of the season.. McGrath, as ever, played commendably straight and appears to have the priceless asset of picking up length early. Together they squeezed the life out of the Hampshire attack and did not need too much in the way of good fortune.Hampshire badly needed a break but it never came.