The world short course champion Lauren Boyle has led the way on the fourth morning of heats at national short course swimming champs in Wellington.
The 25 year old, who has only recently returned to training following a break after her world championship success, posted the fastest time in qualifying for tonight's final.
The world Junior Champion Gabrielle Fa'amausili set a swift time of 28.29s in the 50m backstroke, the event in which she won her world title last month.
Caroline Baddock, winner of the 100m and 200m backstroke, has also qualified for the final tonight, along with Rebekah Bradley, Bobbi Gichard, and world surf lifesaving champion Laura Quilter.
All five swimmers were within 0.3s of each other this morning.
In the men's heats, Auckland swimmer Erik Kahr progressed through to the 50m breaststroke final as the fastest qualifier.
The 100m freestyle final shapes as a close contest with the top eight qualifiers from this morning's heat all within a second of each other, with Samuel Samuel Perry the fastest qualifier.
Twenty-nine year old Kurt Crosland of Dunedin was the fastest qualifier in the 50m backstroke posting a time of 24.33 seconds which was only 0.6s outside the national open record.
