Lauren Boyle qualifies for 1500m final

Lauren Boyle has qualified for her second final on the second day of the FINA Swimming World Championships in Kazan, Russia today.

Boyle clocked 16:02.84 in heats of the 1500m freestyle to qualify fifth fastest.

American Katie Ledecky continued her impressive form after winning the 400m freestyle yesterday to qualify first in a new world record time of 15:27.71 followed by Lotte Friis (DEN) in 15:54.23 and Jessica Ashwood (AUS) in 15:56.52.

New Zealand’s youngest team member, Bobbi Gichard, had her first test of the water in the 100m backstroke today.

The 15-year-old clocked a time of 1:01.26, right on her personal best, to finish 26^th overall and improve her world rank by 10 places.

In the men’s 100m backstroke Corey Main was also on the mark of his personal best touching in 54.51 to be 22^nd fastest.

Matthew Stanley came closer to finding his best form in heats of the 200m freestyle after being well off the pace in the 400m freestyle yesterday.

The Matamata swimmer had a solid first 100m but dropped off the pace in the second half clocking 1:48.67 to be 28^th fastest.

Boyle will compete in the 1500m freestyle final in the finals session of day three.

In tomorrow’s heats Glenn Snyders is back in the pool for the 50m breaststroke with Bradlee Ashby and Nathan Capp making their first appearances at the championships in the 200m butterfly and 800m freestyle respectively.

The championships are live on SKY Sport 5 each day with heats from 6:15pm and finals from 2:15am New Zealand time.