Swanepoel makes semifinals in World Swim Championships

Corney Swanepoel was the best of the New Zealanders in the pool on the opening day of the 13th FINA World swimming Championships in Rome today.

Swanepoel was the first of the kiwis to make the semifinals after he broke his own national record in the morning heats. The 23-year-old lowered his own mark set in April’s World Championship Trials to 23.40 to qualify 13th fastest for the evening semifinals.

The International Training Centre swimmer made a strong start but could not better that effort in the semifinals, clocking 23.50 to be 15th fastest.

Spain’s Rafael Munoz set a new championship record of 22.68 to lead the semifinalists while defending champion Roland Schoeman (South Africa) missed out on a place in the final.

“Corney was outstanding in the morning heat and looked very composed to break his own New Zealand record,” head coach Jan Cameron. “He knew he had to go well under that and close to the 23 second mark just to make the final. Corney made a great start and really went for it but could not quite hold his form in the semifinal.

“However he is showing good speed for his main event, the 100m butterfly later in the meet.”

Team-mate Daniel Bell (North Shore) matched his personal best 23.76 in the morning heats of the same event which was 3/10ths outside the final qualifying spot for the semifinals. He was 29th fastest of the 205 starters from more than 70 countries who qualified for the event.

“It was a good start for Daniel. He has a busy programme for his first world championships and he is right on his game. He has two more swims and a relay this week and is in good form for his important 100m backstroke tomorrow,” said Cameron.

Earlier butterfly specialist Moss Burmester did not qualify for the finals of the 400m freestyle. He was outside his record set at the trials clocking 3:51.31 in a shakedown swim ahead of his main event, the 200m butterfly on day three.

Clubmate Glenn Snyders also did not progress in the 100m breaststroke when he finished well outside his own national record clocking 1:00.77 to be the 26th fastest from 142 starters.

“It was disappointing for both of them today,” Cameron said. “While it’s a warm-up event for Moss, I am sure he wanted to go under his best time, while Glenn was very disappointed himself. He has been training so well and has gone under this time several times in training.”

The partisan crowd at Rome’s Foro Italico, more used to cheering tennis than swimming where a drop in pool has been built for the world championships, brought home local Italian star Federica Pellegrini who became the first woman under the four minute mark in winning the 400m freestyle.

Germany’s Paul Biedermann made it a second world record in the event when he took out the men’s final in 3:40.07 from Tunisia’s Olympic 1500m gold medallist Oussama Mellouli.

In tomorrow’s action Andrew McMillan (North Shore) and Michael Jack (West Auckland Aquatics) compete in the heats of the 200m freestyle and Bell is in his favoured 100m backstroke.

Results:
Semifinal 1, 50m butterfly: Rafael Munoz (ESP) 22.68, 1 CR; Duje Draganja (CRO) 23.03, 2; Matthew Targett (AUS) 23.04, 3. Corney Swanepoel (NZL) 23.50, 8. Semifinal 2: Milorad Cavic (SRB) 22.75, 1; Nicholas Santos (BRA) 23.00, 2; Jason Danford (KEN) 23.10, 3.

Heats:
50m butterfly: Swanepoel 23.40, 13th fastest, NZ record; Daniel Bell 23.76, 29th.
400m freestyle: Moss Burmester 3:51.31, 26th.
100m breaststroke: Glenn Snyders 1:00.77, 26th.