KEY POINTS:
BEIJING - An Olympics final spot proved beyond New Zealand swimmers Melissa Ingram and Corney Swanepoel who couldn't replicate their record-breaking heat times today.
Both bowed out in the semifinals at the Water Cube, with Ingram ranked 11th in the 200m backstroke and Swanepoel 12th in the 100m butterfly.
It left Moss Burmester, who finished fourth in the 200m butterfly, as the only New Zealand individual swimming finalist of the Games.
Ingram, 23, needed to emulate her national record of two minutes 09.34 seconds, which ranked her eighth after the heats, to book a spot in the medal race.
But a slow start cost her in the second semifinal and despite a strong third length, she finished sixth in 2min 09.70sec. She was 0.63sec behind the eighth-fastest qualifier.
Still, Ingram was satisfied with her performance in a year where she carved more than two seconds off Anna Simcic's national record, which had stood for two decades, in March.
"I was pretty happy with that. Obviously I'm a little bit disappointed I didn't quite make that top-eight, but it's still 2.09 and I only went 2.09.30 last night which was a new personal best (PB)," Ingram said.
"I went into this meet ranked 14th and came out 11th, so a PB, a New Zealand record and improved my ranking at my first Olympics, I'm definitely happy.
"I had to do probably another 0.5sec PB to make the final. It's pretty tough, 2.09 won in Athens so that just shows how much the world's improved over the last four years."
Ingram also swam a PB in the 100m backstroke but couldn't progress to the semis.
Swanepoel, 22, smashed his own 100m butterfly record by 0.43sec, swimming 51.78sec in the heats, but could only manage 52.01sec today.
He swam a strong first length but couldn't produce enough of a kick in the second, finishing sixth. He needed to go under 51.62sec to make the final.
The South African-born, Auckland-based swimmer had been confident of making the final, pre-race.
"A little bit disappointing because I went slower than last night. I knew I was going to have to try something different to make the final because last night's time wouldn't have been enough, but I didn't quite pull it off the way I'd hoped," Swanepoel said.
"I wanted to come back a lot harder in the second 50m and hold it together."
American superstar Michael Phelps won heat two in 50.97sec to be second-fastest qualifier as he pursues the seventh of his targeted eight golds.
It wrapped a solid performance by New Zealand's seven individual swimmers at these Games as a swag of world records tumbled and Phelps dazzled.
Five of the seven - Burmester, Glenn Snyders and Elizabeth Coster the others - made semifinals and broke national records while a sixth, Helen Norfolk, swam a 200m medley record but missed the semis in her Olympics swansong.
Burmester became the first New Zealand swimming finalist at an Olympics in 12 years with his gut-busting fourth to Phelps.
- NZPA
* Video courtesy of Television New Zealand www.tvnz.co.nz/beijing2008
