Unshaven James Magnussen into 100m freestyle final at national titles James Magnussen after his semi-final swim. UPDATE: JAMES Magnussen fell victim to the closest shave in sprint history, but still won't take a razor to his designer stubble in the quest for speed. The Olympic silver medallist, who missed gold by the smallest possible margin in London of just one-hundredth of a second, confirmed tonight that he never took a razor to his face prior to the biggest race of his life at last year's Olympics. Magnussen only used a No.1 fitting on a clipper, instead of a close shave razor like most swimmers have used for many years. The reigning world champion said he would just use the clippers again for tonight's 100m freestyle final after qualifying fastest with a time of 48.24sec. I hate using a razor. I will probably just do the same thing," he said."To be honest I don't think it makes that much of a difference, I think swimmers just like to look pretty don't they." Not shaving was once considered a cardinal sin in swimming, with Grant Hackett taking a blade to his entire head in Athens to streamline his 1500m swim. I find that really weird. I got rid of every hair," Hackett said. Magnussen faced a tough challenge in tonight's semi-final, with Cameron McEvoy pushing him all the way to be second quickest in 48.63. Magnussen is hopeful of pushing back below 48sec tonight, just as he did in this morning's heats when his "comfortable" 47.97 effort was faster than his relay lead-off (48.02) for "The Weapons of Mass Destruction" when they were fourth in London. "It definitely wasn't as good a swim as this morning, technically, probably just not quite as sparky tonight, a little bit lethargic," Magnussen said. I had a pretty chronic headache this arvo, it was just hanging around. I knew I would be a little bit sloppy but all the work I'm doing at the moment is about staying positive, staying in the right frame of mind and keeping in the moment. It was a really good test for that stuff tonight and I think that got me across the line pretty nicely. Olympic bronze medallist Bronte Barratt (1:56.05) and good friend Kylie Palmer (1:56.66) repelled a junior raid by claiming the 200m freestyle quinella from 18-year-olds Emma McKeon (1:56.77) and Brittany Elmslie (1:57.15). Barratt, who has persistent shoulder troubles, revealed she almost quit swimming after London but the desire of more medals kept her in the pool. "I was just thinking about stopping swimming but then I get kind of upset," she said. Grant Irvine turned his Olympic heartache into a Barcelona ticket, winning the 200m butterfly in the second-fastest time ever by an Australian in 1:55.32. Irvine missed the London team by just 0.27 last year, a fact coach Michael Bohl reminded him of every second day as motivation.