England's Burnett strikes late to win 100 freestyle

MELBOURNE, Mar 19 (Reuters) England's Simon Burnett unleashed an extraordinary finishing burst to win the men's 100 metres freestyle at the Commonwealth Games today.

The Englishman was third at the end of the first lap, more than three-tenths of a second off the pace, but stormed home on the final lap to win in a slick time of 48.57 seconds.

Ryk Neethling finished second in 49.20, just ahead of his South African team mate Roland Schoeman in 49.24, in a race that had been thrown wide open after the withdrawal last week of Australia's Ian Thorpe.

Schoeman was the pre-race favourite after finishing second behind world record holder Pieter van den Hoogenband at the 2004 Athens Olympics and winning golds in the 4x100m freestyle relay and the 50m butterfly in Melbourne despite not swimming at his best.

But he still looked to be in control when he churned through the first lap in 23.21 seconds before weakening in the final few strokes as Burnett and Neethling surged past.

Burnett also swam the lead-off leg in the England team that won the 4x200m freestyle gold yesterday and took silver in the individual 200m finals behind his team mate Ross Davenport.

REUTERS PM BST1458