Swimming: Kent latest to make final at Panpacs

Veteran Dean Kent leads the New Zealand swimmers in the last night of finals at the Pan Pacific championships in Canada today.

The 27-year-old qualified for the A final in his favoured 200m individual medley with five other New Zealand swimmers to contest B finals at Victoria.

Helen Nor folk qualified in the 200m individual medley, Annabelle Carey and Glenn Snyders in the 200m breaststroke and Hannah McLean and Liz Coster in the 50m freestyle.

The session finished on a high note for New Zealand when Bryn Murphy set a remarkable personal best to win from the slower qualifiers in the 1500m. The Southlander, who now swims for the Waves club in Dunedin, recorded 15min 33.55sec, a remarkable 10 seconds under his previous best and within six seconds of the long-standing national record of the Danyon Loader. The fastest eight 1500m swimmers will contest the timed final.

Kent, starting alongside world recordholder Michael Phelps (US) in the heats today, clocked the eighth fastest time of 2min 02.72sec. This was just over a second outside his best set in winning a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games.

Christchurch's Carey (Aquagym) snuck under her previous best to clock 2min 38.24sec in the 200m breaststroke to qualify for the B final while Snyders (North Shore) was close to his best in the men's race to grab the 15th best time and a spot in the B final.

Backstrokers McLean and Coster earned some bragging rights when they edged out freestylers and snatched spots in the B final of the 50m freestyle. McLean went 26.26sec and Coster 26.41sec, both personal bests for the one-length sprint.

None of the men got through to the final after the Americans dominated the heats.

Several, including Corney Swanepoel, Robert Voss, Moss Burmester, John Zulch and Ben Pickersgill-Brown, clcoked personal best times.

RESULTS - DAY 4 HEATS

200m individual medley:

Women: Helen Norfolk 2min 18.35sec, 17.

Men: Dean Kent 2:02.72, 8.

200m breaststroke

Women: Annabelle Carey 2:38.24, 19.

Men: Glenn Snyders 2:18.97, 15.

50m freestyle

Women: Hannah McLean 26.26, 14; Liz Coster 26.41, 16; Alison Fitch 26.77, 23; Lauren Boyle 26.96, 30.

Men: Corney Swanepoel 23.51, 29; Cameron Gibson 23.88, 38; Michael Jack 24.01, 41; Moss Burmester 24.06, 42; Ben Pickersgill-Brown 24.57, 49; John Zulch 25.08, 51.

1500m: Bryn Murphy 15:33.55, 1.

- NZPA