Swimming: NZ men's relay team through to final

The New Zealand men's relay team set a new national record to qualify for the final on the last day of competition at the world swimming championships in Montreal today (NZ time).

The quartet of Scott Talbot-Cameron, Glenn Snyders, Moss Burmester and Cameron Gibson produced a superb performance in the 4x100m medley relay to qualify in eighth place from the early heats.

They will be joined in the finals later this morning by Zoe Baker who will race the 50m breastroke.

The relay team are now the second ranked team in the Commonwealth behind Australia, just pipping Canada after Burmester and Gibson stormed home over the butterfly and freestyle legs in three minutes 41.36 seconds, 1.5sec inside the old New Zealand record set 10 years ago.

It brings the total of finals to seven for the New Zealand team, who before the meeting, had not made a final at the world championships for seven years.

It is the biggest number of finalists for any New Zealand team.

There were some disappointments with the North Shore pair of Dean Kent and Helen Norfolk missing out on finals in the 400m individual medley.

"The relay team really exceeded the expectations this morning. I am really blown away," coach Jan Cameron said.

"We were chasing a New Zealand record but a place in the finals is a real bonus.

"Both Helen and Dean were disappointed not to join them as they were a bit below their bests today. It's the end of a very long programme and our swimmers are getting really tired."

The finals start from 10am (NZ time).

- NZPA