Swimming: National record swim no consolation to Kent

Any pleasure Dean Kent derived from improving his national record last night was overridden by despair at missing a medal.

Kent finished fourth in an outstanding 400m individual medley final, beaten out of third by Australian Travis Nederpelt by .96s, matching his placing at the Manchester Games in 2002.

Scotland's David Carry won the gold in a Games record of 4m 15.98s, with compatriot Euan Dale taking the silver in a race in which the lead changed hands several times.

Given a choice, Kent admitted he'd rather have swum slower and taken the bronze. He'd hoped to deliver blows to the field on the backstroke and breaststoke legs but was run down on the final freestyle section.

"I've been working really hard on my freestyle and it was probably the best freestyle leg I've done," Kent said.

"I don't think I came home slowly. It was more a case that they came home quick."

New Zealand swimmers battling for finals spots had a strong night.

Hannah McLean was distraught at finishing fourth in the 100m backstroke final on Saturday night.

Last night she swept into the 50m final as fourth quickest qualifier, and will be joined in the final by teammate Liz Coster.

McLean clocked 28.98s, .8s outside her own national record, to finish second behind Australian Sophie Edginton.

Coster whacked out a 29.29s to be fifth fastest qualifier, and that was .24s outside her personal best.

The fastest qualifier was Australian Giaan Rooney who got one of a glut of Games records last night, recording 28.42s.

Freestylers Nicola Chellingworth and Alison Fitch both swim the 50m final tonight. Chellingworth was fifth fastest qualifier in 26.00s, .57s behind Toni Jeffs' national record, Fitch seventh in 26.09s.

Moss Burmester and Corney Swanepoel both made it to the 100m butterfly final, turning out the fourth and seventh fastest times respectively in the semifinals.

Burmester recorded 53.15s. National recordholder Swanepoel was third in his semi in 53.77s, 1.28s outside his best time.

The previous night Fitch put "team before self" and her reward was the best night of her 11-year international swimming career.

Fitch had swum her best 100m freestyle time in four years to qualify for the final on Saturday night.

She was also in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay in the evening.

So Fitch pulled out of the individual final, saved her energy and threw all her focus on the relay, and New Zealand - in the shape of Lauren Boyle, Helen Norfolk, Fitch and Melissa Ingram - won the bronze medal with a national record time of 8min 02.20s in a belting finish.

Strictly speaking, it would be more accurate to say coaches Jan Cameron and Thomas Ansorg made up Fitch's mind for her. "I cried about it last [Friday] night," Fitch told the Herald.

"I was taking too long to make the decision so in the end Jan and Thomas just said 'that's the decision, we're doing it'.

"I wholeheartedly agree with that, but it's hard. You're giving up your own individual race, but I was never going to get a medal in the freestyle and the chances of a medal in the relay were much higher."

Australia, spearheaded by the brilliant Libby Lenton, won the gold in a Games record 7m 56.68s, England got the silver in 8m 01.23s and New Zealand's final swimmer, Ingram, just held on against the fast finishing Canadian Brittany Reimer.

It was the second bronze of a fine night for New Zealand at the Melbourne Aquatic Centre, after lanky backstroker Cameron Gibson pulled off a surprise in the 200m final.

Fitch's dilemma was understandable.

This was her chance to succeed in her own right. The 26-year-old's career has had its share of highs and lows. She's been to two Olympics, holds the national record but there have been troughs along the way.

This was her big chance. But she felt there was a risk to the team's hopes had she swam an hour or so earlier. No one will ever know if it would have had a detrimental effect, even to the tune of .04s.

"Possibly [it might have]," Fitch said. "And I would have had to live with that forever and the team would have had that in their heads.

"The decision was made for four and it was the right decision, and I know I would have come to that eventually."

Gibson woke up on Saturday morning with a sinus infection and wasn't expecting great things that night.

By the time of his final, he felt better and the result was a terrific performance in which he gave a real shake to the 18-year-old national record of 2m 00.48s set by Paul Kingsman at the Seoul Olympics.

Gibson clocked 2m 00.72s, only .40s behind silver medallist Johannes Du Rand of South Africa and .53s ahead of Barbadian Nicholas Neckles.

Scotland's Gregor Tait won the gold in a Games record 1m 58.65s.