Magnussen qualifies fastest for semi-finals James Magnussen. James Magnussen showed that he was ready to dust off his 100 metre freestyle when he posted a sharp heat time of 47.97 seconds to reach the semi-finals in his pet event at the national titles in Adelaide. But Magnussen maintained that he could still contribute to the 4x200 freestyle relay team despite every swimmer in Sunday night's individual final swimming quicker than he has ever managed over four laps. Magnussen withdrew from the final after posting the third-fastest qualifying time of one minute 47.93 seconds so that he could concentrate on the 100 metre event. But a quick 200 metre freestyle final saw the first three swimmers, headed by winner Thomas Fraser-Holmes, swim under 1:47 and eighth-placed finisher Ryan Napoleon, who misses out on a relay berth, touching in 1:47.79. However, Magnussen said he would "really like" to be involved in the relay at the world titles in Barcelona and would be willing to do a time trial closer to the meet to further his cause. "I want to contribute to the team where ever I can," Magnussen said. I still believe I can be a strong contributor to that relay team and I'd really like to be a part of that. He is set to also race the 4x100 freestyle and 4x100 medley relays. However, he said he struggled to swim the heats and semi-finals of the 200 freestyle on the same day. Two (200 metre freestyle races) in one day did hurt me and that's probably another thing to consider for the relay. I'd probably wouldn't be able to back up from a heat to a final just because I'm not that kind of athlete. I'm carrying a bit more weight than some of the other boys and am just a bit more sprinty. Magnussen said he was confident that he could notch a quick time in his pet event. "I know from the training I've been doing I can get a little bit stuck in 200 (freestyle) timing and be a little bit lethargic in the morning so I wanted to blow out a few cobwebs from the 200," Magnussen said. I just executed my race plan really well, was nice and light and pretty quick. It's just a good confidence boost. I'll sleep a little easier today knowing that I haven't lost anything there. Hopefully it spurs everyone else to swim quick as well because as you saw in the 200 (freestyle final) last night there's a lot of depth in men's swimming at the moment I think it would be great to carry that in the 100. (It) is always my plan to start off comfortable in the heat, swim a little bit faster in the semi and then put it all on the line in the final so I think I gave myself a really good platform to do that. Daniel Tranter was the fastest qualifier for the 200 metre individual medley semi-finals in 2:01.48, while Samantha Hamill was the fastest qualifier for the 200 metre butterfly semi-finals. Emily Seebohm backed up from her sixth 100 metre backstroke national title by posting the fastest time from the morning heats of the 50 metre backstroke in 28.44 seconds ahead of Belinda Hocking (28.58) Meanwhile, Richard Eliason (S14) is the top qualifier for Monday night's 100 backstroke multi-class final while Amanda Fowler (S14) is the top qualifier for the women's final and the 400 freestyle multi-class final.