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Halsall: reached 50m freestyle semi-finals
British swimmers Fran Halsall and David Davies both came through the heats of their respective events with solid performances on Friday evening.
Halsall, who finished last in the 100m freestyle final during the morning session, clocked 24.93 seconds to qualify eighth fastest for the semi-finals of the 50m freestyle.
Australia's Cate Campbell was the fastest qualifier, while American veteran Dara Torres, world record holder Libby Trickett, 100m champion Britta Steffen and Marleen Veldhuis of the Netherlands also progressed.
Davies just missed out on his own British record in making the final of the 1,500m freestyle as the fifth fastest qualifier.
The Welshman, who won bronze four years ago in Athens, recorded a time of 14 minutes 46.11s in finishing third in his heat behind Canada's Ryan Cochrane (14m 40.84s) and Russian Yuri Prilukov (14m 40.84s).
"That was unbelievable," said Davies. "It was the fastest heat ever, really, really hard work, but it's expected."
Hackett record
Cochrane's time was an Olympic record, although it did not last long as two-time defending champion Grant Hackett lowered the mark again shortly afterwards in the final heat.
The Australian touched in 14m 38.92s to ensure he will start from the middle lane in Sunday's final.
Britain's women went some way towards making amends for missing the final of the 4x200 relay by finishing behind Australia as second-fastest qualifier for the 4x100 medley relay in a national record.
And the men also made it through to the final of the 4x100 medley relay, also setting a British record with a time of 3:33.83 to qualify fifth fastest for Sunday's final behind the United States, Australia, Japan and Russia.
