KEY POINTS:
BEIJING - Corney Swanepoel and Melissa Ingram both broke national records to progress to Olympic semifinals, but there was disappointment for New Zealand swimming hero Moss Burmester tonight.
Swanepoel qualified ninth fastest for tomorrow's men's 100m butterfly semifinals while Ingram was equally impressive, eighth fastest for the women's
200m backstroke semis.
Burmester, meanwhile, farewelled the Water Cube pool, scene of his gutbusting fourth to American superstar Michael Phelps in the 200m butterfly, when he was only 32nd fastest in the 100m heats.
Swanepoel, 22, defied a back injury to carve 0.43 seconds off his record set at the Olympic trials in March, when he finished second in his heat in a time of 51.78 seconds.
He was 1.02sec behind top qualifier Milorad Cavic of Serbia, while Phelps swam 50.87sec to be second fastest.
Swanepoel burst out of the blocks and touched the halfway point first in heat eight, 0.59sec off world record pace.
He was just pipped on the line by Venezuela's Albert Subirats Altes.
South African-born, Auckland-based Swanepoel was happy with his effort, given the buildup.
"It was an awesome swim, it felt great," he said.
"It was only in the last few metres that I began to tire a bit. A New Zealand record and a PB - and a big PB at that - I couldn't ask for more than that in a heat.
"I wasn't sure how I was going to go. I had a bit of a back niggle earlier this week and haven't been able to do much in the pool."
Ingram, 23, finished third in her heat behind Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry, in 2min 09.34sec which took 0.27 off her national record set at the trials in March.
She'd previously cut more than 2sec off Anna Simcic's record which had stood for two decades.
"I'm really happy with that, a PB and a NZ record," she said.
"I've been training very well and done a lot of hard work so I think all that's just paying off.
"Another PB (tomorrow) would be fantastic and if that's enough to get me in the final that'd be great, hopefully keep on improving."
Burmester was 0.33sec outside his personal best to record 52.67, well off the semifinal cutoff.
He wasn't the same today in the shorter event, beginning slowly in heat six and struggling to kick strongly in the final leg.
"Pretty disappointed. I ended up forcing it way too much," Burmester said.
"Going from the 200m where you're just a bit more relaxed than this where it's shorter, you give it absolutely everything but you can't force it. It's just what I did. It takes a bit of practice."
He admitted yesterday's effort took its toll, after he led Phelps at the 50m mark on world record pace.
"It was pretty tough yesterday afterwards, a few ups and down but I should have been capable of easily going through to the semis here. Not good."
- NZPA
* Video courtesy of Television New Zealand www.tvnz.co.nz/beijing2008