FINA World Swimming Championships - NZ Heats Day 3

Glenn Snyders showed his class to qualify third fastest in heats of the 50m breaststroke on the third morning of heats at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Barcelona.
Snyders, now based in California, clocked a year’s best 27.27s to be third fastest behind top qualifier Cameron van der Burgh (South Africa), the London Olympic 100m breaststroke gold medallist and 2009 world champion over 50m. He was the only swimmer under the 27 second barrier, with Snyders comfortably home in second place in the same heat.

The New Zealander will be determined to further improve in the evening semifinals after he missed out on the 100m final despite being fourth fastest in the heats.

Wellington’s Samantha Lucie-Smith took nearly a second off her previous best to qualify for the semifinals in the women’s 200m freestyle.

Lucie-Smith struggled somewhat with her pacing but roared home with a slick 29.88s final 50m to push from eighth to fourth in her heat to clock 1:58.87. This was the 15th fastest time to put her into her first world championship semifinal.

Shaun Burnett missed out on the semifinal after clocking 1:59.35 in the heats of the 200m butterfly, finishing 24th fastest.

The evening session will see Lucie-Smith and Snyders in semifinals while Lauren Boyle and Gareth Kean will contest the finals of the women’s 1500m freestyle and men’s 100m backstroke respectively.