YORK'S Olympic veteran, Caroline Foot, set a new personal best in the ASA National Championships last night - but will have to swim even faster in tonight's final if she is to qualify for the Sydney Games.

A super-quick second 50 metres saw the 35-year-old clock 61.32secs in her 100m butterfly semi-final, an improvement of nearly four tenths of a second on her previous lifetime best set earlier this year.

However, she will go into the final as only fourth fastest, and will not only need to win the race but also swim under the 61.14secs Olympic qualifying time to guarantee a place in Sydney.

Should she finish second, she will need to clock a time under 60.7secs for the Olympic committee to allow the maximum of two swimmers to make the trip.

These national championships are doubling up as the qualifiers for the Sydney Games, with former York City Baths Club star Foot aiming to reach her third Olympics, having swam at Seoul '88 and captained the women's team in Atlanta '96.

Foot, who was also fourth fastest in the heats earlier yesterday, clocking 62.56secs, told the Evening Press she remained confident of qualifying for Sydney, expecting to record faster times as the competition wore on.

"I will have to do another personal best to qualify for the Olympics but I don't believe that will be too much of a problem. I should be able to find it from somewhere," she said.

"The idea is to take things on from the heats, for when the real test begins. There was no pressure (yesterday) and I felt good."

Richmond's Nicola Jackson, who clocked an Olympic qualifying time of 61.0 in winning the heats, was only second fastest in the semi-finals, behind Birmingham's Georgina Lee, who also recorded a winner's qualifying time of 61.02secs.

Jackson timed 61.17secs in the semis, with Portsmouth's Margaretha Pedder third with 61.19secs. Foot, however, swam by far the fastest second 50m, having been last at the turn in a half-way time of 33.27secs.

Under qualifying guidelines, performances in this evening's final will over-ride heats and semi-final times, unless a qualifying mark is not achieved.

Atlanta Olympic silver medallist Paul Palmer - pre-selected for the Sydney Games - stormed home to win the 400 metres freestyle final.

Palmer's time of three minutes 49.61 seconds was his fastest of the year.

Jamie Salter, the 24-year-old City of Edinburgh swimmer who finished second, also claimed a Sydney berth with his time of 3min 53.09secs - inside the qualification mark of 3min 54.10.