New Zealand's best swimming Olympic hope, Moss Burmester, is through to today's 200m butterfly semifinals at the Water Cube.
Burmester, racing in the fourth of six heats, finished third, clocking 1min 55.80s, .81s outside his personal best and New Zealand record time.
That was good enough to havehim 10th fastest in the field of 16 semifinalists.
Hungarian Laszlo Cseh won the heat in 1:54.48. Poland's Pawel Korzeniowski - the only swimmer in the field to have produced a quicker time than Burmester this year - was second in 1:55.21.
Burmester was slightly off the pace for the first 150m in what had been until then comfortably the quickest of the heats. However, he came home with a rush. "As I turned [for home] I saw I was a little bit behind so I knew I had to pick up a little bit," he said.
The goal of getting into the semis was achieved, even if the time was not up to his very best. "It wasn't a max swim. If I'm planning to get through to the final, I've got to save a little bit."
The Olympic mark was lowered in the final heat - and no prizes for guessing by whom. Michael Phelps already owns the six fastest times ever in the event and last night he eased through to the final as top qualifier with a Games-record 1:53.70.
Cseh surprised by claiming second quickest time, followed by Brazil's Kaio Almeida.
The 1.82m Burmester arrived at the Olympic meet having put up the ninth fastest time of the year.
He set a national record 1:54.99 at the NZ Olympic trials in March, a performance that reinforced he is fit to stand among the elite in the event.
Since winning the Commonwealth Games gold in Melbourne in 2006, Burmester has gone from strength to strength. In last year's world championship final, also in Melbourne, he finished fourth, a mere .13s out of bronze, achieved in a national record of 1:55.35.
The Tauranga 27-year-old has long been viewed as NZ's strongest chance - perhaps that should be only - for a Beijing swimming medal. Last night did nothing to disprove that argument.
