Lewis Clareburt progressed comfortably into the semi-finals of the 200m individual medley when he finished 11th overall in the heats today.
Clareburt finished second in his heat in 1min 58.84s. The fastest qualifier was Daiya Seto of Japan, who swam 1min 57.48s.
There was more good news when the New Zealand women’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay team qualified for the final. The team of Erika Fairweather, Eve Thomas, Caitlin Deans and Laticia-Leigh Transom swam 7min 54.37s for fourth place in their heat, beating highly rated Germany, Japan and France.
The New Zealanders were eighth overall, just ahead of Italy.
Fairweather was the quickest of the New Zealanders with 1min 56.04s, with Thomas swimming 1min 59.29s, Deans 1min 59.11s and Transom 1min 59.93s.
Taiko Torepe-Ormsby just missed a spot in the semi-finals of the men’s 50m freestyle, the “splash and dash”, as it’s sometimes called.
The 20-year-old smashed through the water in 22.01s, which placed him 19th among the 74 competitors in an event often decided by mere hundredths of a second. The top 16 swimmers moved through to the semi-finals.
Earlier this year Torepe-Ormsby became the first New Zealander to break 22 seconds for the event when he swam 21.86s at the national championships, a time that would have placed him 8th equal today.