By Ian Gordon, PA Sport, Sydney

James Hickman has pleaded for more Lottery funding to aid Britain's beleaguered swimmers as Alison Sheppard and the two 4x100m medley relay teams were left with the task of salvaging a solitary Olympic medal on the final day of competition.

Glaswegian Sheppard will need to go quicker than ever before if she is to steal a medal in the women's 50m freestyle final, after qualifying sixth fastest behind a new world best of 24.13 seconds from Dutch sensation Inge de Bruijn, her third world record of the Games.

Sheppard managed 25.32 seconds to reach her first Olympic final, while Hickman joined Neil Willey, Darren Mew and Sion Brinn to set a new British record of 3:39.60 in qualifying fifth fastest for the 4x100m medley relay final.

The women's relay team of Katy Sexton, Heidi Earp, Susan Rolph and Karen Pickering also clocked a new British best of 4:07.52 to qualify sixth fastest for tomorrow's final, but elsewhere the picture was not so rosy.

Mark Foster was a disappointing seventh in the men's 50m freestyle final, where the gold was shared by American duo Anthony Ervin and Gary Hall Jr in a dead-heat, while Paul Palmer endured a painful 1500 metre freestyle heat before trailing home seventh out of eight.

The very real prospect looms of Britain finishing without a swimming medal at the Olympics for the first time since 1936, and, with UK Sport conducting a review of Lottery funding in every sport after Sydney, Hickman is adamant swimming requires a fresh injection of cash if Britain is to compete with the all-powerful American, Australian and Dutch teams.

"The squad as a whole has gone forward, and there are four guys here (the medley team) who have gone faster than any four before, and we can go faster," said the 24-year-old, who reached the semi finals of the individual 100m and 200m butterfly.

"But overall here we haven't been good enough, because everyone else has moved forward at a quicker rate than we have.

"People talk about Lottery money, which has been such a help to us. I know we haven't got any medals, but that doesn't mean the investment should stop.

In actual fact, we need more."

The Leeds-based Mancunian remained defiantly upbeat about the medley team's prospects of springing a surprise upset tomorrow and claiming a medal on the final day of the swim programme.

"Anything can happen," he insisted. "If you're in it, you can win it."

Sheppard meanwhile, competing in her fourth Games, was delighted with her own performance in making her first Olympic final, although the 27-year-old believes she will have to surpass her personal best of 25.12 seconds to be in the medal hunt.

"I'm a lot happier with that time," she said of her semi final effort, after a modest 25.53 seconds in her opening heat.

"I'm getting down to where my best is, and I can relax a bit more now and get ready for tomorrow."

Foster, also competing in his fourth Olympics, was contemplating his long-term future after finishing seventh in the men's 50m freestyle final in 22.41, Ervin and Hall Jr dead-heating for gold in 21.98, with flying Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband adding a bronze to his golds in the 100m and 200m freestyles.

"I'm disappointed, because I've swum faster than that on three or four occasions in hard training lately," said Foster.

"But it just wasn't there tonight, and it has not been there all week."

The Bath-based swimmer indicated his desire to continue until the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002, and "hopefully another four years" if he can find himself a new sponsor.

"I will be 34 in Athens, but in the last four months I have done my five fastest times ever," he pointed out.

"I'm definitely thinking Manchester, because I'm still the fastest swimmer in the Commonwealth, but it's all about winning medals here, and I've missed out again."

There was also disappointment for Russian Alex Popov, who failed in his bid for a historic third consecutive Olympic gold, when he could only manage sixth.