Alison Sheppard, swimming in her fifth and final Olympics, today qualified for the semi-finals of the women's 50metres freestyle in Athens.

Sheppard finished third in her heat in a time of 25.36 seconds this morning to qualify eighth fastest for tonight's semis.

World record holder and defending champion Inge de Bruijn of Holland recorded the fastest time, winning the final heat in 24.66secs.

Sheppard first competed at the age of 15 in 1988 in Seoul, where Adrian Moorhouse won Britain's most recent swimming gold medal.

The 31-year-old Glaswegian was one of the few successes at Sydney four years ago, one of just five swimmers to reach an individual final as the team failed to win a single medal for the first time since 1936.

"It was a solid heat swim," she said. "It wasn't too quick but I've been sat around all week waiting so now that is out of the way I can concentrate on the semi-final.

"It was nice to get started at last.

"I'm just going to go into the semi and do my own race because it is going to be really close to get into the final."