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Top trio safely through

Image: Fran Halsall: Made it through butterfly heats

Fran Halsall, Ellen Gandy and Jemma Lowe all made it through the 100m butterfly heats at the Olympic trials.

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Halsall, Gandy and Lowe all through in butterfly contest

British record holder Fran Halsall successfully made it through the heats of the 100m butterfly along with World Championship finalists Ellen Gandy and Jemma Lowe. Great Britain are loaded at the event but with only two positions available for the Olympics one world-class swimmer is set to miss out. As a test event overseas swimmers are allowed to compete and world record holder Saraj Sjoestroem was quickest this morning in 58.28 seconds, with Gandy heading the Britons into Saturday night's semi-finals in 58.71secs. Gandy, world silver medallist in the 200m butterfly, said: "That was a bit faster than I planned to go. "It was a case of blowing the cobwebs away and getting my first race under my belt." The Melbourne-based swimmer described the pool and Olympic Park as "amazing".

Tight battle

Halsall had missed out in this event at last year's World Championships when Lowe pipped her to the second berth by one hundredth of a second. Both Gandy and Lowe reached the final in Shanghai, finishing fifth and eighth respectively. Halsall was the second-fastest Briton in 59.01 and said: "I just wanted to go out in the first 50 and then ease down. I just wanted to qualify." Lowe was 12th through in 59.89 and said: "I just felt really relaxed. I'm really happy to go into the meet and race fast." Joe Roebuck was the fastest Briton through to tonight's final of the 400m individual medley in 4:17.78, two hundredths of a second ahead of world finalist Rob Pavoni. Markus Rogan of Austria headed the heats but overseas swimmers will compete in finals separate to the British athletes. Robbie Renwick is the fastest into Saturday night's 400m freestyle final (3:50.70) ahead of Ieuan Lloyd who edged out world record holder Paul Biedermann in his heat.