She faces a domestic field not in her class in the 50m butterfly tonight. But then she proved at the Olympics, with three gold medals and matching world records, that there is no-one in her class at present. The man who can match strokes with van den Hoogenband, Ian Thorpe, will be a spectator tonight. But the Dutchman knows it is just a matter of time until they meet again, and then it will be serious. We have a lot of good races coming up.
Swimmers can only forget the clock for so long.