Swimming: Rignall breaks NZ record in heat

German-based Vivienne Rignall broke her own New Zealand record in the women's 50m freestyle heats at the Sydney Olympics on Friday to qualify for the semifinals.

Rignall, 26, clocked 25.52 seconds to touch fourth in her heat won by world recordholder Inge de Bruijn who won the heat in an Olympic record 24.46sec.

Rignall's previous record was 25.85sec, set at the German championships this year.

She qualified seventh-equal for the semifinals, giving herself every chance of becoming New Zealand's first swimming finalist at these Games.

Rignall, who entered her sprint with the 21st fastest qualifying time, was surprised to be ranked at No 7 for tonight's semifinals.

``I thought I might make 14, 15 or 16, but tonight's a new race and some of the real cracks just cruise along in the morning so it will be completely different tonight,'' she said.

Rignall was delighted to have improved her personal best by 0.35sec.

``It is a huge PB. If I'd done five hundredths of a second better than my PB I would have been happy because hundredths of a second can make a big difference in the 50 metres,'' she said.

She thought she had made a little mistake at the start, although New Zealand coach Brett Naylor told her she was swiftly out of the blocks.

``Everything went really well for me this morning but maybe there'll be less pressure on me tonight and I can swim a little more controlled.''

De Bruijn looked primed for another gold medal, having won the 100m freestyle in a world record on Wednesday.

Dunedin distance swimmer Jonathan Duncan was well below his best time when finishing fourth in his 1500m heat in 16 min 03.41 sec.

Duncan was 37th fastest swimmer in the 1500m heats.

Australian Olympic champion and world recordholder Kieren Perkins was the top qualifier with 14min 58.34sec.

- NZPA