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Commonwealth Games medallist Dean Kent is well positioned to challenge on the second night of finals at the world short course swim championships in China.

Kent qualified fifth fastest in this morning’s heats of the 400m individual medley in Shanghai and will be one of four Kiwi individuals and a relay team to contest finals tonight.

The silver medalist in the 200m medley in Melbourne clocked a solid 4:11.61 in his heat to earn a competitive lane for tonight’s final where he will be looking to go close to his New Zealand record of 4:06.66 if he is to challenge for a medal.

Zoe Baker will race in the final of the 50m breaststroke while Hannah McLean and Liz Coster will fight out the final of the 100m backstroke.

Also through is the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay after demolishing the national record in heats this morning. They grabbed the eighth and final qualifying spot for tonight’s final after clocking 7:12.70 which is 10 seconds inside the New Zealand record.

Three other New Zealanders will swim in semifinals tonight after Alison Fitch, Georgina Toomey and Helen Norfolk qualified in this morning’s heats.

Fitch, the remarkable Atlanta Olympian, continued her excellent form to clock 55.35s to be 14^th fastest in the 100m freestyle. She ill need to close to her national mark of 54.50s set last year if she wants to progress to the final.

Toomey set a personal best of 27.25 to be 15^th fastest for the 50m butterfly while Norfolk recovered from her demanding opening night with the 400m individual medley and a leg of the 4x2300m freestyle relay to qualify in the100m medley. She clocked 1:03.48 to be 15^th fastest.

There were encouraging swims from the younger New Zealand swimmers with Lauren Boyle (100m freestyle), Daniel Ryan (400m individual medley), Toomey (50m butterfly) and Cara Baker (800m freestyle) who recorded personal bests in the heats.

New Zealand heat results, day 2:

• 100m freestyle: Alison Fitch 55.35, 14^th; Lauren Boyle 55.76, 20^th.
• 400m individual medley: Dean Kent 4:11.61, 5^th; Daniel Ryan 4:28.05, 18^th.
• 50m butterfly: Georgina Toomey 27.25, 15^th; Liz Coster 27.58, 19^th.
• 50m freestyle: Cameron Gibson 22.82, 30^th.
• 100m individual medley: Helen Norfolk 1:03.48, 15^th; Cara Baker 1:04.60, 22.
• Men’s 4x200m freestyle relay: New Zealand 7:12.70, 8^th NZ Record (Robert Voss 1:48.27, Cameron Gibson 1:48.58, Andrew McMillan 1:48.48, Moss Burmester 1:47.37)
• 800m freestyle: Cara Baker 8:40.95