KEY POINTS:
BEIJING - There was one small positive for a gutted New Zealand swimmer Helen Norfolk after she smashed a national record but still missed the Olympic semifinals.
She never has to swim breaststroke again at these Games.
Three-time Olympian Norfolk shaved half-a-second off her own New Zealand 200m medley record of 2min 14.00sec in finishing sixth in heat five at the Water Cube pool - but was still 0.56sec outside the top-16 cut off for today's semis.
It was not long after her Kiwi teammate Moss Burmester had cruised through his specialist 200m butterfly heats last night 10th fastest for the semis (3pm today NZT).
After an ordinary swim in her specialist 400m medley on day one, when she was 5sec outside her personal best, Norfolk was more upbeat but returned a similar conclusion.
"I've been having a few problems with my breaststroke and it's taking a lot more out of me than I'm used to, it's not as efficient," she said ruefully.
"I didn't have any forearms on that last length. I don't even want to see what the split was because I know it was really bad (38.98sec, the fifth-fastest of the heat).
"I did have problems with it in my 400m but one length of breaststroke is a lot better than two lengths. I knew I could pull the one length down but just coming home it was too tough."
It was a tough realisation after three Olympics in Sydney, Athens and Beijing that one stroke of the medley still wasn't up to scratch.
Norfolk, 26, at least has one more attempt to salvage something from the Water Cube, when she joins Hayley Palmer, Lauren Boyle and Natasha Hind in the 4x200m freestyle relay heats tomorrow night.
"The relay doesn't consist of any breaststroke so I'm pretty excited. At the same time I've got three other girls counting on me. I'm leading off, I'm going to give it everything and I'm pretty sure we can do something special.
"We've got two rookies at the end of the relay, they're pretty fresh but they're really confident and I can't wait to see them swim as well."
New Zealand's first relay team in the pool performed creditably, smashing the national men's 4x100m freestyle relay record by 2sec but still missing the final from a world record heat on Sunday.
Despite her breaststroke issues, Norfolk still felt a touch robbed of a semifinal spot on a day when four world records tumbled.
"Four years ago in Athens, 2.13 would have been close to a medal, so it's pretty amazing that 2.13 doesn't even make the semifinals here," Norfolk said.
"I'm happy with my race, I got a New Zealand record, but a bit gutted that I didn't make the semi and also because I didn't finish the race how I wanted to.
"I'm pretty sure I could do a 2.12 and make the semi. Tonight, just the end of the race, it wasn't my night."
Also yesterday, backstroker Elizabeth Coster made New Zealand's first appearance in the semifinals after breaking the national 100m backstroke record, but was 16th fastest in her bid for the final.
- NZPA
