Swimming: Snyders breaks record in opening heat

Olympic semifinalist Glenn Snyders set the pool alight with a national record on the first morning of the New Zealand swimming championships in Christchurch today.

The 21-year-old from Auckland went under his own New Zealand record to top qualifiers in the 100m breaststroke.

Snyders showed no effects of a recent knee injury to clock a time of one minute 00.17 seconds, slicing 3/10ths of a second off his record set at last year's Olympic trials.

The championships in Christchurch double as the official trials for the world championships in Rome in July.

Snyders' time was well under the qualifying mark although he will need to do it again in tonight's final to secure a world championships berth.

"That was great. And it was a bit surprising," Snyders said.

"I wanted to go under 1:01 but was surprised how fast it was. That's the fastest that I have ever come home and I still think there's some more in the tank for tonight."

Daniel Bell, 18, also went under the world qualifying mark when he topped qualifiers for the 100m butterfly ahead of fellow Beijing Olympians Moss Burmester and Corney Swanepoel.

Bell clocked a time of 52.70sec, nearly 2/10ths of a second under the qualifying time needed, although it must again be achieved in the final tonight where only two swimmers can qualify for the world championships.

Swanepoel and Burmester also won their respective heats in 52.99sec and 53.56sec.

In other key swims, Southland's Natalie Wiegersma was fastest in heats of the 100m butterfly, Katie Kenneally, of Otago, was the best in the 100m breaststroke while Bell returned to clock the fastest time in the 50m backstroke with North Shore's Emily Thomas fastest in the women's 50m backstroke.

- NZPA