World University Games Swimming – Day 6
New Zealand swimmer Lauren Boyle returns home next week for a well earned rest after her record-breaking stint in China.
The 23 year old, coached by Mark Regan, finished her campaign with a bronze medal in the 1500m freestyle on the penultimate night of competition in the pool at the World University Games in Shenzhen.
She was joined in the celebrations by clubmate Glenn Snyders who claimed his second gold medal of the Games with victory in the 50m breaststroke, setting a new national record in the process. He has a chance to add to this in the medley relay on tomorrow’s programme.
Boyle, from Swimming New Zealand’s High Performance Centre, clocked 16:26.37 to be just outside Cara Baker’s national record in a hard fought final.
She celebrated all sorts of records at the Universiade, becoming the most successful New Zealand athlete in any sport with her five medal haul. She edged ahead of swimming great Anthony Mosse who won four medals. Boyle is the first kiwi to win five medals at a single Universiade, with Mosse’s haul spread over three Games. She is the first New Zealander to win two gold medals and also has helped the Swimming New Zealand team to a remarkable 11 medals with one day remaining.
This week Boyle has won two gold medals, two silver and a bronze along with lowering her own New Zealand record in the 800m freestyle.
This follows an outstanding campaign at the World Championships in Shanghai two weeks ago where she reached the finals in the 400m and 800m freestyle and the semifinals in the 200m, setting national records in all.
Boyle leaves her China sojourn now ranked in the top-10 in the world over 400m and 800m freestyle and 15th on corrected rankings in the 200m freestyle.
“I’ve been really happy with backing up my performances from the world champs,” Boyle said. “After relaxing a bit I did some more volume in training and then concentrated on getting really excited about this meet.
“This is my first time at a World University Games. For me it’s really an honour to compete here because I really value my education but I also really enjoy sport. So competing in this type of competition where my fellow competitors are also serious about their academics makes it quite exciting.
“I’m honoured to be the most successful New Zealand athlete at the World University Games. I just wanted to gear up against some really tough competitors and practice different strategies.
“I had no idea I would come out from this campaign with such successful results so I am really happy with the decisions I’ve made with my swimming career and enjoying being back in New Zealand,” said Boyle who returned to Auckland fulltime in May after the completion of her degree from the University of California Berkeley.
Tonight’s 1500m freestyle final was an intriguing affair with Boyle and American Haley Anderson rounding up early runaway leader Megan Gilchrsit (GBR) at the 900m mark. Boyle put the pressure on with a series of mid 32 second laps until the 200m gold medallist Melania Costa Schmid (ESP) joined the pair at the 1200m. The Spaniard blew the tight bunch apart with the kiwi dropping slightly off the pace before Anderson flew home to edge out Schmid in the final 10m to take the gold.
Snyders, also coached by Regan, impressed tonight with an outstanding swim, starting strongly and covering the field in the 50m breaststroke.
After tensing up to fade over the final 10m in the 100m final, Snyders was all class tonight to win in 27.37 from Joao Gomes Jnr (BRA). His time further lowered his own New Zealand record of 27.52 set at the world championships and was the seventh fastest time in the world this year.
His victory follows his gold medal in the 200m and silver in the 100m breaststroke.
Teenage talent Matthew Stanley was a fingertip away from a medal in the final of the 200m freestyle, finishing fourth by 1/10th of a second.
The SNZ High Performance Centre swimmer, coached by Scott Talbot, swam aggressively over the back half of the race to move through from sixth to be out-touched for the bronze, clocking 1:49.16. It was his fourth time under the 1:50 barrier, all recorded in this China campaign at Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Tomorrow’s final day in the pool sees Tash Hind, Amaka Gessler, Carl O’Donnell and Nielsen Varoy in the 50m freestyle, Melissa Ingram and Jesse Blundell in the 200m backstroke, Katie Kenneally in the 100m breaststroke, Jonathon Pullon and Troy Balvert in the 1500m freestyle and the New Zealand men’s team in the medley relay.