Swimming World Championships - Day 1

There were four finals on Day 1 of the Swimming World Championships, with British interest in two of them. Unfortunately there were no medals.

The fastest qualifiers in the Women's 100m Butterfly Semi-Final were the Australians Jessicah Schipper and Lisbeth Lenton who both swam in the second heat.

Tae Hwan Park (Korea) won Gold in the Men's 400m Freestyle Final, Oussama Mellouli (Tunisa) Silver and Grant Hackett (Australia) the bronze.

Kathryn Hoff (USA) won the first of the Women's 200m Individual Medley Semi-Finals with Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe) winning the second.

Roland Schoeman of South Africa won heat the first if the Men's 50m Butterfly Semi-Finalsl, whilst American Ian Crocker qualified fastest from the second heat.

In the Women's 400m Freestyle Final, Laure Manadou (France) won Gold in a Championship Record time of 4:02.61. Otylia Jedrzejczak (Poland) was second with Ai Shibata (Japan) third.

Britain's Joanne Jackson finished seventh, but her time of 4:07.42 was enough to ensure Olympic Qualification. In the morning, Caitlin McClatchey had just failed to make the final, her ninth fastest time of 4:08.52 was also enough to ensure Olympic qualication.

The two leading qualifiers in the Men's 100m Breaststroke Semi-Final came from heat two. Kosuke Katajima (Japan) went past the American Brendan Hansen in the last twenty metres.

The British relay team qualified for the Women's 4 x 100m Freestyle Final (and thus Beijing). The team of Francesca Halsall, Melanie Marshall, Julia Beckett and Rosalind Brett finished seventh behind the Australians.

The Mens 4 x 100m relay team of Christopher Cozens, Simon Burnett, Ross Davenport and Benjamin Hockin finished ninth fastest in the heats. The time of 3:41.28 was a new British Record. Although they didn't make the final on this occasion, they ensured that Britain has the qualified for Beijing. The Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Final was won by America.