By SHELDON LONGLEY NG Sports Editor >> Multi-national record holder Jeremy Knowles became the first Bahamian athlete to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, when he dipped below the ĪB standard established by FINA, the world?s governing body for swimming.

Knowles accomplished the feat in his specialty, the 200 meter (m) Fly, at the 12th FINA World Swimming Championships in Melbourne, Australia on Tuesday morning. His 1:59.20 clocking failed to get him in the event semi-finals, but surpassed the Olympic ĪB? standard of 2:01.79, that was

just released by FINA (International Swimming Federation). The major international meet, which represents the first Olympic qualifying event for swimmers for the 2008 Games, is being used by Knowles in preparation for 2008. The two-time Olympian, who is the lone Bahamian swimmer at the week-long World Championships, currently trains in Auburn, Alabama but will re-locate to North Carolina immediately following the World?s where he will live and train until the Olympics.

Knowles finished 20th overall in the 200 Fly on Tuesday morning in Melbourne. His time was significantly slower than his national record time of 1:58.25, but in his defense, not even that would have been good enough to get him into the semi-finals. The final qualifying time for the semi-finals

was recorded in 1:57.93. Knowles set his long course national record of 1:58.25 on August 17 in Victoria, British Columbia last year, and it would have taken a new one for him to qualify for the semi-finals. The same could be said of the 50m Fly on Sunday. The final qualifying time

for the semi-finals (24.06 seconds) was almost a second faster than Knowles?

time. He finished 51st overall in 24.98 seconds on

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Sunday, and then followed that up with his 20th place finish in the 200m

Fly. His national record in the 50 Fly, set at the XVIII Commonwealth Games

in Melbourne last year, is 24.83 seconds.

Swimming out of lane eight in heat 15 of the 50 Fly on Sunday, Knowles

touched the wall in fifth place. He finished 59 hundredths of a second

behind the winner of that heat, and was 1.68 seconds behind the top

qualifying time. His reaction time of .74 seconds was the fifth fastest in

his heat.

In the 200 Fly Tuesday morning, Knowles finished seventh in an extremely

fast heat in which five of the swimmers who beat him qualified for the

semi-finals. He swam out of lane seven in heat six and finished 20th overall

in 1:59.20, which was 2.09 seconds behind the winner of that heat and 3.42

seconds behind the top qualifying time. His reaction time of .76 seconds was

the fastest in the field.

Knowles also competed in his 200m Individual Medley (IM) heat Wednesday

morning (last night our time), but the result of that race was unavailable

up to press time. Going into the preliminary rounds of the 200m IM, Knowles

was still looking to make his first semi-final. He swam out of lane one in

heat eight of that event, and will swim in his final event, the 100m Fly, on

Friday.