ALL three Malaysian swimmers made the semi-finals of their events in the Telstra Grand Prix in Sydney, Australia yesterday, but none managed to beat Olympic qualifying marks.

However, Marellyn Liew, Luisa Los Santos and Foo Jian Beng still have a chance in their final bid for Olympic qualification in the semi-finals today.

Marellyn and Luisa clocked 1:02.92s and 1:03.45s to finish fourth and fifth respectively in their 100-metre butterfly heat.

The Olympic qualifying mark is 1:01.43s, but Marellyn, who had clocked 1:01.56s in the Singapore Open last month, is suddenly showing a decline.

Marellyn had also faltered in the 50 butterfly preliminary rounds after clocking 29.66s, way off her personal best of 27.45s, but she made the semi-finals, also to be held today, as the ninth fastest qualifier.
Jian Beng, who was down for the 50 and 100 freestyle, looks likely to come home empty handed.

The Selangor swimmer clocked 23.96s in the 50 freestyle, to rank 15th after the preliminaries and after clocking 50.94s to place seventh in his 100 freestyle heat, Jian Beng was knocked out of that event. -- ARNAZ M. KHAIRUL