Swimming: Five qualify for Games

Five swimmers qualified for Melbourne in the opening session of heats at the Commonwealth Games trials in Auckland today.

North Shore's Helen Norfolk, Liz Coster, Nichola Chellingworth and Moss Burmester along with Canterbury's Zoe Baker all qualified at the Waitakere centre.

"It was just fantastic. Sometimes heat sessions can be a bit quiet as the swimmers save themselves for semifinals and finals," Swimming New Zealand (SNZ) director of coaching Clive Rushton said.

"To get five swimmers through in this opening morning is very encouraging.

"The good thing is that all of them look quite controlled and showed there's more to come. A number of others are very close. It should prove an exciting night."

Norfolk started the charge clocking 4min 50.70sec in the 400m medley, one second inside the qualifying time for the Commonwealth Games.

"That was really good. I was planning on making it a strong swim but people were waving me on so I thought the qualifying time must have been on and so I pushed it up in the freestyle," Norfolk said.

"I hope to go faster tonight. That's the plan to always swim faster in a final."

Clubmates Coster and the Australian-based Chellingworth qualified in the 50m butterfly, edging under the time by 2/10ths of a second, with Canterbury's Georgina Toomey only 6/100ths sec off the qualifying mark.

"That was great to get the qualifying time done. It takes some heat off the rest of the meet now, which is fantastic," Coster said.

"I was pleased with that effort but would like to think I can go faster in the semis and final."

Former world record holder Baker impressed with her 31.56sec heat win in the 50m breaststroke, a half a second inside the qualifying time for Melbourne.

"That felt good. It was a good heat win and good to get the qualifying out of the way," she said.

"It was a controlled swim and a pleasing start."

Baker said she was on target for her goal of winning gold in Melbourne and claiming back her world record.

North Shore's Moss Burmester qualified in the 100m butterfly in 53.63sec, nearly 2/10ths of a second inside the Games time, with clubmate Corney Swanepoel less than 1/10hs outside the time.

"I was planning only for a solid swim today in the heats," said Burmester, a 200m butterfly specialist.

"My coach came up just before the swim and said I should go for it. So I did. It really takes some pressure off now and I can just concentrate on performances."

The first session of semifinals and finals are tonight and continue until Saturday.

- NZPA