Swimming: McLean qualifies for world champs

North Shore's Hannah McLean became the fifth swimmer to qualify for the world championships during the morning heats at the national championships in Wellington today.

McLean, ranked 14th in the world last year, produced a strong performance to clock one minute 01.79 seconds -- over half a second inside the qualifying time for July's world championships in Montreal.

She becomes the first swimmer to qualify from a morning heat and McLean has tonight's semifinal and tomorrow's final to better that mark and threaten her New Zealand record of 1min 01.55sec set at last year's Open Championships.

McLean joins fellow North Shore swimmers Moss Burmester, Dean Kent, Corney Swanepoel and Helen Norfolk as world championship qualifiers midway through the five-day championships.

In other action Liz Coster topped qualifiers in the 50m butterfly, Kent in the 100m breaststroke, North Shore's Robert Voss in the heats of the 200m freestyle, Greerton's Liz Van Welie in the 200m butterfly and Burmester in the 50m butterfly.

- NZPA