Malta's Madeleine Scerri led heat 1 in the Beijing Olympic swimming women's 100m freestyle heats this morning, setting a new national record but failing to qualify for the next round.

Ms Scerri stopped the clock at 57.97 seconds, when the previous national record was 58.11s.

The following were the results. The best 16 qualified for the semi-finals:

Heat 1
1. Madeleine Scerri (Malta) 57.97 seconds
2. Elena Popovska (Macedonia) 59.93
3. Olga Hachatryan (Turkmenistan) 1:14.77
Heat 2
1. Ting Wen Quah (Singapore) 56.14
2. Natthanan Junkrajang (Thailand) 56.56
3. Orsolya Tompa (Hungary) 56.57
4. Christel Simms (Philippines) 56.67
5. Nieh Pin-Chieh (Taiwan) 57.28
6. Irina Shlemova (Uzbekistan) 58.77
Heat 3
1. Hannah Jane Arnett Wilson (Hong Kong) 55.32
2. Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace (Bahamas) 55.61
3. Birgit Koschischek (Austria) 55.62
4. Heejin Chang (South Korea) 55.96
5. Ragnheidur Ragnarsdottir (Iceland) 56.35
6. Anna Stylianou (Cyprus) 56.38
7. Eleni Kosti (Greece) 56.44
8. Nina Sovinek (Slovenia) 57.30
Heat 4
1. Jeanette Ottesen (Denmark) 54.04
2. Anna Gostomelsky (Israel) 55.18
3. Anastasia Aksenova (Russia) 55.29
4. Darya Stepanyuk (Ukraine) 55.51
5. Arlene Iradie Semeco Arismendi (Venezuela) 55.70
6. Triin Aljand (Estonia) 56.10
7. Miroslava Najdanovski (Serbia) 56.50
8. Maria Laura Simonetto (Italy) 56.72
Heat 5
1. Francesca Halsall (Britain) 53.93
2. Aleksandra Gerasimenya (Belarus) 54.52
3. Cate Campbell (Australia) 54.55
4. Lacey Nymeyer (United States) 54.62
5. Alena Popchanka (France) 54.86
6. Martina Moravcova (Slovakia) 55.20
7. Inge Dekker (Netherlands) 55.23
8. Jana Klusackova (Czech Republic) 55.92
Heat 6
1. Hanna-Maria Seppala (Finland) 53.60
2. Britta Steffen (Germany) 53.67
3. Marleen Veldhuis (Netherlands) 53.76
4. Pang Jiaying (China) 54.01
5. Josefin Lillhage (Sweden) 54.07
6. Petra Dallmann (Germany) 54.70
7. Agata Ewa Korc (Poland) 55.14
8. Lize-Mari Retief (South Africa) 55.17
Heat 7
1. Natalie Coughlin (United States) 53.82
2. Lisbeth Trickett (Australia) 53.99
3. Zhu Yingwen (China) 54.01
4. Malia Metella (France) 54.12
5. Erica Morningstar (Canada) 54.66
6. Julia Wilkinson (Canada) 54.70
7. Tatiana Barbosa (Brazil) 55.01
. Caitlin McClatchey (Britain) DNS
DNS = Did not start

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