Ian Thorpe’s comeback to competitive swimming has copped another blow with the five-time gold medalist failing to qualify for the men’s 100m freestyle final in the Victorian state championships on Friday morning.

Thorpe, 29, finished 13th overall after this mornings heats and recorded a time of 51.05 seconds.

Thorpe said yesterday that he set himself a goal to beat the time he set in Italy last month but was unable to achieve the time of 50.84 seconds.

A disappointed Thorpe admitted that he was disappointed with his results following the heats but remains optimistic for tomorrow’s 200m freestyle event.

“It’s pretty simple, I really wanted to have two swims today,” Thorpe said.

“If I was .4sec faster I would be happy with how I went, just to be able to have two hitouts in one day.

“But I have another race tomorrow and I hope to swim better in that.”

Matt Targett qualified with the quickest time this morning, finishing a full second ahead of the field with a time of 48.86 seconds.

Michael Klim, also making a comeback, finished 7th with a time of 50.15 seconds.