Six weeks into 2008 and gauntlets are being dumped at the door of Laure Manaudou (FRA) - among many others, of course - at every turn. Sunday evening, and the Missouri Grand Prix witnessed its second world record, the 100m backstroke falling to holder Natalie Coughlin in 59.21.

'If you could see my face, I was slightly shocked,' Coughlin said after emerging from a race with a new best time by 0.23sec. 'I was thinking about BBQ and no warm down. It was a strange race. I really didn't expect it.' Coughlin, Olympic champion, won the world title at Melbourne 2007 in 59.44 six years after claiming her first global crown at Fukuoka, 2001. In Missouri, at 50m, Coughlin was almost half a second down on her world-record pace but came home hard.

Consider Manaudou's programme: 200 and 400m freestyle, 100m and possibly 200m backstroke are where promise of success is greatest. After Missouri, every one of those targets looks a little more difficult to hit. 1972 and Shane Gould spring to mind: the Australian faced a different foe in all her races as the US team wore t-shirts emblazoned with the words: 'All the Glitters (sic) is not Gould'. She won five individual medals, the only woman ever to do so, three of them gold. Perhaps the Beijing t-shirt taunt will be 'who's that girl in the beret behind us?' America will not rest. Manaudou may well have a forceful answer. Many a thrill ahead.

More fun, too, to come in Missouri with 100m butterfly, 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m medley and men's 1500m and women's 800m free.