Swimming: Burmester narrowly misses butterfly final

7.50am - By DANIEL GILHOOLY

ATHENS - Moss Burmester has narrowly missed becoming the first New Zealand swimmer to dive into an Olympic Games swimming final since the great Danyon Loader.

Despite a personal best time of one minute 58.09 seconds, Burmester was ranked 12th of the 16 semifinal swimmers in the 200m butterfly overnight (NZ time), missing the final by 0.61sec.

Loader was New Zealand's last Olympic swimming finalist when he won two gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Burmester, the talented Tauranga swimmer who was fourth in the same event in the Manchester Commonwealth Games two years ago, was the sixth quickest in his heat, won by Great Britain's Stephen Parry in the night's quickest time, 1min 55.57sec.

It meant only two swimmers could beat Burmester's time in the second heat if the 23-year-old were to advance to the final. However, six went under the mark.

He had been the 11th-fastest qualifier for the semis this morning in 1min 58.13sec, which was significantly better than his previous best before these Games.

It didn't look like he would break that mark this evening, going through the 150m mark in eighth place and slower than his morning swim.

However, he dug deep in the final length, swum in a sharp 30.91sec.

Burmester expressed happiness to have beaten his best twice today but disappointment he couldn't go a little faster.

"I was hoping to get down to the 1min 57sec mark, I need to go a little quicker still," he said.

"I'm actually quite surprised that I wasn't really nervous for it. I was really hyped up for it but I'm not nervous, which is a good thing. It's because I've had so much overseas experience in the last couple of years.

"I had a really good afternoon warmup and was really fired up for it."

Burmester said he was keen to go under the national record of former Olympic bronze medallist Anthony Mosse of 1min 57.27sec, set when he won gold at the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games in 1986.

Before then his target was to move from being the third-fastest swimmer in New Zealand history to the second best by beating Loader's 1min 57.87sec.

"I was hoping to get Danyon's mark tonight and then Anthony's mark is next."

Burmester's Games involvement isn't over. He will contest the 1500m freestyle where another personal best was in his sights.

Swimming in the same heat and semifinal today as American phenomenon Michael Phelps was neither a positive nor negative, Burmester added.

"I've raced him numerous times over in the States. You focus on yourself when you're out there swimming."

Another New Zealander in semifinal action tonight didn't go as close to qualifying for the final, with Helen Norfolk 16th in the women's 200m individual medley.

Norfolk was fractionally slower than her morning heat personal best time of 2min 17.27sec, which had qualified her 16th, clocking a time tonight of 2min 17.41sec.

She remains just outside the national record of 2min 17.00sec set by Anna Wilson in 1996.

Norfolk was fifth through the opening backstroke and butterfly legs but faded to last in the breaststroke and couldn't make up ground in the freestyle.

She finished 2.73sec off qualifying for the final and 4.11sec behind fastest qualifier Yana Klochkova of the Ukraine.

Norfolk said she was still pleased with her day's swimming after coming painfully close to qualifying for her specialist 400m individual medley final earlier in the meet.

"It was horrible missing out on the 400m so I was ecstatic this morning when I made the semis," she said.

"I was expecting a little bit more tonight though. I'm a night swimmer so I thought I could go out there and beat the New Zealand record but I just missed it again.

"I've been doing about 2min 17sec all season so I thought I would go faster under taper. So I'm a bit disappointed."

Norfolk also expected better as there wasn't as much wind tonight as in the semifinals. She had become used to training in windy conditions at the team's pre-Games base in Kefallonia.

- NZPA