Swimming: Snyders and Boyle through to semifinals

Glenn Snyders. Photo / Getty Images

Two out of three ain't bad; that was New Zealand's story out of the third morning of heats at the world swimming championships in Shanghai yesterday.

Both Glenn Snyders and Lauren Boyle carved time off their own national records in qualifying for last night's semifinals of the 50m breaststroke and 200m freestyle respectively. However, the third New Zealander in action yesterday, Taranaki's Dylan Dunlop-Barrett, was well off the pace in the heats for the 800m freestyle.

In Boyle's case, it backed up a strong performance on the opening day, when she finished sixth in the 400m freestyle final, establishing a national record in the process.

Yesterday, the North Shore swimmer was eighth best overall in the heats to comfortably make the semifinals, and also give herself a decent chance of making tonight's final. The 23-year-old clocked 1:57.72, .86s inside her own national record. She was third in her heat, the sixth of seven.

Her heat winner, Alison Schmitt of the United States, posted 1:56.66, in being quickest into the semifinals. Australian Kylie Palmer was second in that heat in 1:57.42, and fifth overall.

World record holder Italian Federica Pellegrini was second fastest in 1:56.87 with Australian Bronte Barratt third best in 1:57.37. Pellegrini set her standard, a cracking 1:52.96 at the world champs in Rome two years ago.

Snyders matched Boyle's record-setting achievement en route to being sixth fastest into the semifinals. He was third in a sizzling heat in 27.52 seconds, dropping .15s off his own personal best and national record.

That follows busting his own 100m breaststroke national time on Monday.

Snyders, also from North Shore, was in a cracking heat, which was won by Brazilian Felipe Franca da Silva, silver medallist in Rome and former world recordholder, in 27.19s, with Norwegian Alexander Dale Oen, an emotional winner of the 100m discipline on Monday, just days after the tragic events in Oslo, second in 27.51.

Dunlop-Barrett finished 34th overall out of 51 in the 800m qualifying in 8:13.06.

As a comparison, the eighth and final spot in last night's final went to American Cha La Tourette who put up 7:49.94. Dunlop-Barrett's best, and the national record, is 8:03.09. That time would have had him 21st overall yesterday.

Remarkably considering the distance, the three fastest qualifiers, China's Sun Yang, Pal Joensen of the Faroe Islands, and Canadian Ryan Cochrane were covered by just .28s.