Grant Hackett dusted the post-Olympic cobwebs off with a pleasing cameo at the Queensland swimming titles that left a modest Chandler crowd wanting more.

Hackett delivered a self-proclaimed "world class" time of 3 minutes 50.63 seconds in the morning 400m freestyle heats before withdrawing from the evening final.

The invincible 1500m powerhouse was delighted with the effort, especially as it was his first race since the Athens Games and came in the middle of heavy training.

But training partner and ironman champion Ky Hurst, still balancing duel careers in and out of the pool, failed to give himself the same reward of a night off after a fine early effort.

Hurst qualified sixth in an admirable 4:01.95 only two days after taking out a gruelling second round of the Nutri-Grain Ironman series at Portsea.

The 23-year-old Gold Coaster intended dropping out of the 400m final like Hackett but was too slow in meeting the short post-race cut-off time to withdraw.

He was forced to swim the final or pay a fine and ultimately laboured into second last in 4:04.66 - almost 10 seconds behind winner Nic Sprenger (3:54.73).

"It's alright, I still wanted to swim it," said Hurst, who maintains swimming is his priority and is targeting a 1500m berth in the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

"I needed a hit-out anyway.

"I was a bit flat in the water ... but that's OK, I'm not disappointed.

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