Zoe Baker, Corney Swanepoel and Moss Burmester underlined their international class on a record-breaking first day for New Zealand swimmers at the world short course championships in Manchester today.
Swanepoel saved his best for the semifinals in the 100m butterfly, clocking the third-quickest time of 50.94sec, a massive 0.73sec quicker than the national record he set four years ago. He will be joined in the final by Burmester, who was also impressive with 51.30sec.
The top qualifier in 50.09sec was Australian Adam Pine.
Earlier Burmester was the fastest in heats with 51.37sec, with Swanepoel cruising through more than half a second slower.
Veteran Baker was second-fastest in the 50m breaststroke semis in a time of 30.27 seconds, beaten for top seed in tomorrow's final by Russian Yullya Efimova, who recorded 30.16sec.
The only New Zealander involved in a final this morning (NZ time) was Helen Norfolk, an impressive sixth in the 400m individual medley.
However, her four minutes 34.36 seconds was well in the wake of winner Kirsty Coventry, the veteran Zimbabwe allrounder clocking a world record 4min 26.52sec.
Glenn Synders went more than a second under the New Zealand 100m breaststroke record in topping heat qualifiers this morning with 58.67 seconds. He qualified seventh-fastest for tomorrow's finals with his semifinal time of 58.90sec.
Liz Coster and Melissa Ingram both narrowly missed places in the 100m backstroke final, finishing ninth and 12th fastest in the semifinals.
Daniel Bell was 16th quickest in his 100m backstroke semi to also miss a final berth while Andrew McMillan was 18th-fastest in the 200m freestyle heats so didn't advance.
