York Olympian Caroline Foot has her sights set on a place in the final of the 50m butterfly in the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Hong Kong.

Foot, who at 33 is by far the oldest member of the British team, goes in tonight's semi-finals after coming through the heats today. She said: "I'm really happy, really delighted. I hope to go faster tonight. I usually do!"

Also in the semi-finals is the star of yesterday's women's 4 x 200m freestyle relay silver medal, Nicola Jackson, was just outside her British record in the heats with a time of 28:86.

The 15-year-old, from Richmond, said: "I'm pleased with that. I hope I can go faster tonight. It wasn't that far off my PB so I'm going to try and get a PB in the final."

The disqualification of the Australian team, the world champions, in the 4 x 200m freestyle has given the British men's squad a golden chance of winning.

The disqualification came about because the third and fourth swimmers, Ray Hass and Matthew Dunn, changed their order during a scintillating swim of 7min 04:73sec - just two seconds outside the world record.

The irony is that only one of the Australian team would have swum in the final.

Sitting on the sidelines were Ian Thorpe, who last night broke the world record for the 200m freestyle, Grant Hackett, the world record holder for the 200m freestyle long course, and Michael Klim, the world long course champion.

Australian officials objected to the ruling but their appeal was turned down.

Britain's quartet of Gavin Meadows (Leeds), Marc Spackman (Bath University-home town Lincoln), Andrea Clayton (Bath University-Leeds) and Edward Sinclair (Edinburgh) recorded a time of 7min 11:60sec to head the qualifiers.

In tonight's final one of the British team will be dropped and Paul Palmer, the Olympic, World and European medallist for the 400m freestyle, will step in.

James Hickman was going for gold today warning: "I'm just warming up."

The Stockport-born, City of Leeds star won his 100 metres butterfly semi-final in his second championship record time of the day yesterday. Hickman finished in 51.51 seconds, beating Sweden's Lars Frolander by 0.02secs.

Two world records for the 100m medley were established with three minutes.

Slovakia's Martina Moravcova shaved six hundredths off the figures set by Jenny Thompson of the USA, earlier this year, with a time of 1min 00:35sec.

In the very next heat Thompson, who had been announced as the previous world record holder which annoyed her, stormed to a 59:30sec to stamp her authority on the event.

But she may not swim the semis tonight as she also has the semis of the 50m butterfly and the final of the 100m freestyle and the latter event is the most important for her and comes shortly after the medley.

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