BEIJING — Former Auburn swimmers Kirsty Coventry and Mark Gangloff both advanced in their respective events Saturday as swimming got under way at the 2008 Olympics.

All the swimming events are taking place at the Beijing National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube.

Coventry was first off the blocks as she finished third in her 400-meter individual medley heat with a time of 4:36.43. Her time was good enough to place her seventh overall and earn her a spot in Saturday evening’s final.

Coventry will swim in lane one and the race will be broadcast live on NBC at approximately 9:42 p.m.

Fifteen-year-old American Elizabeth Beisel swam the top time in the preliminary, clocking a time of 4:34.55 to earn the top seed heading into the final.

For the first time, the structure of the swimming events has been changed to an evening preliminary / morning final setup. This change was made to accommodate American viewing audiences and allow the swimming events to be broadcast live in a prime time slot. When Coventry takes to the pool at 9:42 p.m.  she is actually swimming at 10:42 a.m. Sunday in China.

Also in action Saturday was Gangloff, who sneaked into the 100m breaststroke semifinal after finishing 16th in the preliminary with a time of 1:00.71.

Gangloff finished fifth in his heat and beat out former Alabama swimmer Vladislav Polyakov (Kazakhstan) for the last spot in the semifinal. Polyakov finished 17th overall with a time of 1:00.80 — nine-hundredths of a second behind Gangloff.

Norway’s Alexander Oen clocked the top time of the preliminary, touching in with an Olympic-record 59.41, to earn the top seed heading into Saturday night’s semifinal.

Gangloff is slated to swim in the first of the two semifinals and will be in lane eight. The estimated start time for the 100m breast semifinal is 10:01 p.m.

In all, 29 current, former and future Auburn athletes are representing their respective countries at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. For more information on Auburn’s Olympic contingent, check out the Auburn Olympic Web page at http://auburntigers.cstv.com/ot/olympians.html.

Also see the official Olympic Web site at http://en.beijing2008.cn.