Swimming: Burmester misses out on final

Moss Burmester was 11th fastest in the semifinals, with only the top eight advancing to the final. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Commonwealth champion Moss Burmester dipped out in his specialist 200-metre butterfly event at the swimming world championships in Italy today by qualifying 11th fastest after the semifinals.

Burmester eased through the heats in the morning session at the Foro Italio in Rome but had to settle for sixth in his semifinal after clocking one minute 55.35 seconds - more than a second outside his Commonwealth record.

A bitterly disappointed Burmester went out strongly in his semifinal to be second after the first 50m but was unable to sustain the pace over the back end of the race.

Swimming New Zealand head coach Jan Cameron said Burmester and his coach Thomas Ansong were trying to determine what went wrong.

"They did a great preparation, they're bemused and going over the race to see what could have been done better."

Japan's Matsuda Takeshi qualified fastest (1min 53.35sec) when taking the first semifinal ahead of Beijing Olympic champion Michael Phelps.

Five swimmers from Burmester's second semifinal qualified for tomorrow's medal race.

Earlier a New Zealand record was not quite enough for Glenn Snyders to qualify for the semifinals in the 50m breaststroke.

Snyders took 2/10ths of a second off his own national record set in the trials, bringing the mark down to 27.72sec.

He finished 28th overall.

"That's given me some confidence to get a good swim under my belt," Snyders said.

"I was upset after the 100m and now this shows I have the speed and I am excited looking forward to the 200m and I have another chance to get the 100m right in the medley relay."

Snyders now eyes the 200m breaststroke heats on Thursday where he hopes to repeat his semifinal-making performance at Beijing.

There are no New Zealanders in action tomorrow but on Thursday Hayley Palmer (100m freestyle), Kurt Bassett (200m backstroke) are also in action.

New Zealand Day 3 results

Heats
50m breaststroke: Glenn Snyders 27.73, 28th.
200m butterfly: Moss Burmester 1:56.03, 11th.

200m butterfly semifinals:
Takeshi Matsuda (JPN) 1:53.35, 1; Michael Phelps (USA) 1:53.48, 2; Sebastien Rousseau (RSA) 1:54.71, 3.

Semifinal 2: Pawel Korzeniowski (POL) 1:53.75, 1; Dinko Jukic (AUT) 1:54.42, 2; Kaio Almeida (BRA) 1:54.50, 3, MOSS BURMESTER (NZ) 1:55.35, 6th

- NZPA