IT WAS A disappointing first day of pool action for Hong Kong's young squad at the World Swimming Championships in Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday, with none recording any noteworthy times.
No local records were broken by the squad on the day that Australia's Ian Thorpe stole the headlines with a record ninth gold medal, and third consecutive championships 400-metre freestyle title.
By yesterday afternoon, the Hong Kong Amateur Swimming Association was still unable to confirm if any of the six locals who competed on Sunday had recorded a time fast enough to qualify for the Olympics next year.
To make the semi-finals of championship events, swimmers must be among the fastest 16 in qualifying.
Sze Hang-yu produced the team's best performance in the women's 100m butterfly. At 15 the youngest competing in the event, Sze recorded a respectable time of 1 minute 3.47 seconds to finish 29th out of 57 entries.
The SAR women came within half a second of beating the 4x100m freestyle relay team record set at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, when the territory finished 16th out of 17, ahead of India, in a time of 3 mins 54.96 secs.