Swimming: Swanepoel beaten

An aggressive effort from Corney Swanepoel was not enough to earn a spot in the 100m butterfly final at the world championships yesterday.

Swanepoel, starting in the outside lane in the second semifinal, pushed hard over the first 50m, before fading in the final 10m to finish eighth.

He finished in 51.79s, a tick outside his New Zealand record, in a stunning semifinal where Serbian winner Milorad Cavic broke Michael Phelps' world record, clocking 50.01s.

Swanepoel went for broke in a powerful and fast start, turning fourth in his race and the sixth fastest of all semifinalists in 23.82s. He finished 0.7s off the final qualifying spot.

In the morning heats, his training mate Moss Burmester completed an unhappy championship, fractionally outside his best in 52.13s to miss out on the semifinal.