Swimming: NZ record, but no final for Norfolk

2:00 PM

Helen Norfolk broke the New Zealand 400m individual medley record in her Olympic swimming heat this morning, but failed to make the final.

Norfolk, the first New Zealand swimmer to see action at the Sydney Aquatic Centre, finished sixth in a heat won by Yasuko Tajima of Japan.

She was among the first three through the butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke legs, then fell away in the freestyle dash home.

Norfolk, 19, shaved more than a second off her own national record, clocking 4 minutes 46.42 seconds.

It was a plucky swim, but never looked fast enough to put her among the eight fastest swimmers to contest tonight's final.

So it proved. Norfolk was eliminated when her time was beaten by the first three in the next heat.

Norfolk was 13th fastest, two places above her world ranking coming into the Games.

She would have had to swim 2.42 seconds faster to reach the final, but was almost nine seconds adrift of fastest qualifier, Ukrainian Yana Klochkova.

Jonathan Duncan, urged on by a vocal fan club, failed to swim up to his best in the men's 400m freestyle heats.

Duncan was fifth in 3 min 58.52 sec, almost three seconds slower than his personal best 3 min 55.78 sec, swum in Perth in April. He did not make the final.

Duncan's event saw the first Olympic appearances by the Australian heavy artillery, Grant Hackett and 200m and 400m world record holder Ian Thorpe.

Hackett was pushed back to a close third in his heat, a sizzler won in 3 min 48.42 secs by American Chad Carvin, with Romanian Dragos Coman.

Thorpe, greeted by the home crowd as a conquering hero in the next heat, seemed to be cruising, but still broke the Olympic record set by Russian Evgeny Sadovyi at Barcelona eight years ago.

Thorpe swam 3 min 44.65 secs, as the stadium rang to the roar of "Thorpey, Thorpey."

It is hard to imagine what noise levels will be reached at tonight's final.

Duncan, 18, was 29th fastest in the heats.

His pre-Games ranking for the event, his strongest of the three he has entered in at Sydney, was 25th.

New Zealand's last hopes of getting a swimmer beyond the heats today rested with Steven Ferguson, in the men's 100m breaststroke.

Ferguson, the son of Olympic canoeing great Ian Ferguson, led at the turn but was swamped in the final 50m by a charge led by experienced Australian Phil Rogers.

Ferguson, 20, was fifth in a blanket finish.

His 1 min 3.06 secs would have been a disappointment, given he has swum 1 min 2.91 sec and had hoped to break the New Zealand record in Sydney.

- NZPA