World University Games
The New Zealand swim proved all that glitters is not gold as they collected two silver medals on the third night of finals at the World University Games in Shenzhen, China.
Lauren Boyle, from Swimming New Zealand’s High Performance Centre, grabbed her third medal when she earned silver in the final of the 200m freestyle.
The unlucky swim came from training partner Tash Hind, who produced a brave performance in lane eight, going under the two minute mark for the first time this year but was edged out of a medal, finishing fourth.
Earlier Glenn Snyders earned his second medal when he was overtaken in the final 10m in the final of the 100m breaststroke, and settled for silver.
This brings the team’s tally to eight medals in three days, which equals the total number of medals won by New Zealand swimmers in their previous 22 years of their summer Universiade competition.
Boyle, who won gold in both the 800m and 400m freestyle, recovered from a conservative start to hit the lead at 100m. She has slipped back to third at the 150m mark in a tightly fought battle as teammate Hind, out of sight and out of mind in lane eight, challenged for the lead.
Spaniard Melania Costa Schmid, who just missed a spot in the finals at the recent world championships, pushed clear to win in 1:57.98. Boyle showed her fighting qualities to get up for second in 1:59.19, just ahead of American Karlee Bispo with Hind only 25/100ths of a second away from the podium in 1:59.56.
Snyders collected silver in the 100m breaststroke to go with the gold he won in the 200m breaststroke, and has a chance for further success in the 50m on Friday.
The 24 year old again went into battle with Lithuania’s Giedrius Titenis after the pair dead-heated for the gold medal in the 200m final. Snyders was on schedule for a potential sub-60 seconds effort, as he went through the 50m mark faster than his national record effort in Shanghai. He lost some fluency in his stroke over the final 15m as Titenis edged past to win in 1:00.39 with the kiwi 3/10ths behind.
Earlier both Gareth Kean and Kurt Bassett recorded personal bests but just out of the medals in the 50m backstroke. Kean, 19, from the Capital club, took 35/100ths off his season best from the heats to clock 25.49 for fourth. He was less than 3/10ths of a second off Daniel Bell’s national record.
Bassett (HPC Laser Mt Eden), a 200m specialist, was fifth in 25.52 with both swimmers enjoying a strong meet. Kean won a gold and bronze while Bassett picked up a bronze in the 100m.
Japan’s Ryosuke Irie, the world championship bronze medallist in the 100m backstroke, had missed out on the final last night. He made amends with victory in the 50m backstroke final in 25.11.