Queen shares joke with ailing Thorpe

MELBOURNE, Mar 16: Queen Elizabeth shared a joke with an ailing Ian Thorpe today suggesting his absence from the Commonwealth Games would allow other people to win medals.

''At least you're giving someone else a chance,'' the queen told Thorpe, a winner of six Commonwealth golds.

The five-time Olympic champion Thorpe pulled out of the Melbourne Games earlier this month suffering from a virus and bronchial condition, robbing the event of its biggest star.

''Those viruses are horrible,'' Australian Associated Press reported the queen as saying.

On her 15th visit to Australia, the queen also toured the Games village in suburban Melbourne and shared lunch with about 100 athletes.

Her visit reopened the debate about whether Australia should cut its 218-year ties with Britain and become a republic with a home-grown president and drew protests from indigenous Aborigines who said 18th century British settlers stole their land.

The queen officially opened the 18th Commonwealth Games on Wednesday in a blaze of fireworks and Australian pop imagery.

The 79-year-old monarch left Australia later on Thursday after her five-day visit and headed for Singapore.

REUTERS