De Bruijn smashes record

De Bruijn continued the Dutch success story in the pool

Inge de Bruijn has smashed her own world record in the semi-finals of the 100m freestyle.

The Dutch swimmer clocked 53.77 seconds in the semi-finals of the event to beat the 53.80 seconds mark she set at Sheffield in May this year.

But Britain's Sue Rolph and Karen Pickering both agonisingly missed out on making the final in the separate heats.

Rolph shaved 0.08 seconds off her heat time to finish in 55.69 secs while Pickering improved by 0.41 seconds to 55.71.

But the improvement was not enough, and left the pair ninth and tenth fastest of the 16 semi-finalists, albeit less than a tenth of a second slower than the time of the slowest qualifier.

Rolph: Close but not close enough

Missing out on the final is a particular disappointment for Rolph, who was eighth quickest in the heats and fourth fastest over the distance in the world last year.

The British times were almost two seconds slower than De Bruijn, who looks a strong favourite to take gold in Thursday's final.

The Dutch woman, going in the second semi, was over half a second quicker than the next quickest swimmer Jenny Thompson of the US.

But no other finisher came within a minute of the record-holder.

Despite the disappointment, Pickering was content with her swim.

"It was close to my personal best," she explained.

"It was good to be in there racing and I felt I did a good job."

Pickering will now team up with Rolph in the final of the 4x200m freestyle relay, as Britain continues its bid to win its first swimming medal of the games.