Age No Barrier for Crosland in Oceania Swimming Victory

Dunedin’s Kurt Crosland showed that age is no barrier when he grabbed New Zealand’s first gold medal on the opening night of finals at the Oceania Swimming Championships in New Caledonia last night.

The 27 year old won the men’s 100m backstroke in 57.18s ahead of Australian Ben Edmonds and Swimming New Zealand teammate Ben Gillies.

New Zealand won four medals on the opening day in Noumea with Queensland-based Cameron Simpson winning a silver medal in the 50m butterfly, Troy Balvert (Otago)a bronze in the 1500m freestyle as well as the gold and bronze to Crosland and Gillies.

Crosland, who said he never made the most of his chances as a young swimmer, is enjoying a return to the sport 10 years after he gave it away.

Now the father of a two year old son, Crosland is coached by Gennadiy Labara and well motivated to reach the top including qualifying for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

It marks the start of a busy week for the Otago swimmer who will also contest the 50m and 200m backstroke, 50m and 100m freestyle and 200m individual medley.

Gillies, coached by Matt Thomas at North Shore, grabbed the bronze medal with a strong effort.

Simpson, who attends and trains at The Southport School on the Gold Coast, produced a solid 25.17s to finish second to Australian Lester Daniel in the final of the 50m butterfly, with his preferred freestyle events still to come.

Dunedin’s Troy Balvert, coached by Andy Adair at the Waves Club, recovered sufficiently after finishing fourth in the 10km open water swim yesterday, to finish third in the 1500m freestyle final.

The championships continue until Sunday.

Results, Day 1 finals:

Men 50m butterfly:  Lester Daniel (AUS) 24.55, 1; Cameron Simpson (NZL) 25.17, 2; Kyle Richardson (AUS) 25.23, 3.

Men 200m freestyle: Kenneth To (AUS) 1:54.61, 1; Thomas Dahlia (FRA) 1:55.81, 2; Rhys Mainstone (AUS) 1:55.83, 3. Also: Ewan Jackson (NZL) 1:57.43, 4; Matthew
Glassford (NZL) 1:58.29, 6

Men 100m backstroke: Kurt Crosland (NZL) 57.18, 1; Ben Edmonds (AUS) 58.48, 2; Ben Gillies (NZL) 59.92, 3.

Men 1500m freestyle: Jarrod Poort (AUS) 15:13.38, 1; Trent Grimsey (AUS) 15:23.55, 2; Troy Balvert (NZL) 15:57.36, 3.