Bree not far off the mark

ANDREW BREE came close to joining the world’s elite 200m breaststroke swimmers when failing by just 0.19 of a second to make the final despite knocking 0.75 seconds off the new national record he set in the heats.

He knocked over two seconds off his old national record on Tuesday evening when he won his heat in 2:10.91 which got him through to the semi-finals. And he returned to the Olympic Aquatic Centre yesterday morning to reduce his record to 2:10.16 for fifth place behind the world record holder, Kosuke Kitajima (Japan) who reduced the Olympic record to 2:08.61.

It was a career best performance for Bree but he admitted he was surprised at the overall standard.