Five-time Olympic gold medalist Ian Thorpe ended his comeback swimming meet prematurely yesterday after failing to qualify for the 100-meter butterfly final at a World Cup event in Singapore.

Thorpe, who placed seventh in the 100m individual medley final Friday, finished fourth in his heat yesterday, a full two seconds behind teammate Chris Wright, who won the race. His time of 54.09 seconds was 11th overall.

"I'm disappointed because I thought I'd be a little bit faster," Thorpe said. "I didn't go hard when I should have and kind of fell into an awkward kind of technique in that race."

The 29-year-old swimmer began his comeback earlier this year after more than five years of retirement in a bid to represent Australia at next year's London Olympics. As well as Olympic gold, Thorpe won 11 world titles and set 13 individual world records during his career.

Thorpe's next race will be at a World Cup event in Beijing next week.