Synders grabs double against Aussie Olympic medallist

New Zealand swimmer Glenn Snyders chalked up an emphatic victory on the second night of the FINA World Cup in Beijing today.

The 24 year old from Swimming New Zealand’s High Performance Centre took out the 100m breaststroke, beating home the London Olympic silver medallist Christian Sprenger (Australia) in a repeat of the 50m breaststroke final last night.
Snyders, coached by Mark Regan, led all the way to win in 57.96s, his third straight sub-58 second effort and only 9/100ths of a second outside the national record he set in Berlin last year.
He has now won four times on the FINA Arena World Cup circuit and has four of the fastest 15 times in the world over the distance this year.
Teammate Melissa Ingram continued her strong form to finish third in the 400m freestyle, won in a dominant performance by home country star Yiwen Shao, a London Olympian, who won in a tick over the four minute mark.
Ingram, coached by Scott Talbot, was second going into the final 50m but was edged by  Chinese swimmer Yufei Zhang for the silver medal.
It is the 11th podium finish for the outstanding 27 year old New Zealand star who is setting her sights on next month’s world short course championships.
In other swims Matthew Stanley (Matamata) was fifth in the final of the 200m freestyle in 1:45.50 after winning the 400m freestyle on the first night.
Training mate Dylan Dunlop-Barrett was 20th fastest in heats of the 200m freestyle, West Auckland’s Jessica Marston was 20th in the women’s 400m freestyle heats while North Shore’s Mitchell Donaldson was pipped for a spot in the final of the 200m individual medal, finishing ninth  fastest in 2:03.15. Stanley was 13th fastest in the same event.
The series moves to Tokyo for two nights starting on Monday, with the final round in Singapore this weekend.
Day 2 finals results:
Men 200m freestyle: Tomasso D’Orgagna (AUS) 1:43.20, 1; Robert Hurley (AUS) 1:43.50, 2; Darian Townsend (RSA) 1:43.50, 3. Also: Matthew Stanley (NZL) 1:45.50, 5.
Men 100m breaststroke: Glenn Snyders (NZL) 57.96, 1; Christian Sprenger (AUS) 58.06, 2; Shuai Wang (CHN) 58.42, 3.
Women 400m freestyle: Yiwen Shao (CHN) 4:00.56, 1; Yufei Zhang (CHN) 4:06.48, 2; Melissa Ingram (NZL) 4:06.53, 3.