Swimming: Kiwis hot medal chances

New Zealand's Corney Swanepoel and Daniel Bell will swim for medals after record-setting efforts at the Australian short course championships in Hobart.

Swanepoel qualified second fastest from the semifinals of the 50m butterfly yesterday after becoming the first New Zealander to go under the 23s barrier in the discipline.

He clocked 22.74s to better the previous mark held by Bell of 23.04s.

Bell is also through to the finals after clocking 23.31s in his semifinal. He also qualified fastest in the semifinals of the 50m backstroke, going under the 24s mark for the first time. He was timed at 23.92s to take a whopping of a second off the NZ record.

Andrew McMillan finished fourth in the final of the 400m freestyle in a personal best of 3m 44.03s, less than 3s off Danyon Loader's national record.

Hayley Palmer finished eighth in the final of the 100m freestyle in 54.17s, outside the NZ record she set in the heats and semifinals. Winner Libby Trickett broke the world record in 51.01s. The championships finish today.

- NZPA