Slick Swims Encouraging for Contenders at Auckland Swim Champs

Several swimmers went tantalisingly close to Commonwealth Games qualifying times on the final night of the Auckland Championships.

With swimmers completing their final week of heavy training load, the results were encouraging with three weeks remaining for the State Insurance New Zealand Championships which double as the official Commonwealth Games Trials at the West Wave Aquatics Centre in Waitakere City.

Leading the way was Wellington’s Tash Hind, part of the Swimming New Zealand High Performance squad at Millennium, who went closest on her way to winning the 200m freestyle. Hind clocked 2:00.14 to be only 32/100ths of a second outside the qualifying time she will need to achieve at the trials to secure a spot in the team for New Delhi.

Moss Burmester, the Melbourne Commonwealth Games gold medallist, took out his favoured 200m butterfly in a close battle with North Shore’s Andrew McMillan in 2:00.56, which is two seconds outside the qualifying time.

Beijing Olympian Glenn Snyders, also from SNZ’s High Performance group, was one second outside the trials mark in winning the final of the 100m breaststroke.

North Shore swimmers Daniel Bell and Emily Thomas, both formerly from Hawke's Bay, also went close to the qualifying times in strong performances. Bell clocked 55.32 in winning the 100m backstroke, 44/100ths outside the mark, while Thomas won the women’s title in 1:01.88, only 57/100ths outside the New Delhi time.

The championships also included the finals of the elimination series for the 50m over all disciplines with William Benson (Roskill) and Penelope Marshall (North Shore) winning the freestyle while the backstroke finals went to Bell and Thomas, who was only 42/100ths outside the New Zealand record clocking 29.08.

Olympians Corney Swanepoel and Snyders took out the men’s 50m butterfly and 50m breaststroke respectively, while Southland’s Natalie Wiegersma completed an excellent meet in winning both finals.

“Overall I am sure the coaches will be quite pleased with the performances of the leading swimmers, as we look ahead to the Commonwealth Games Trials,” said Swimming New Zealand’s Jan Cameron.

“They had all come straight off their final big training week so to see so many of them very close to the standard is encouraging.

“They will now head into their speed tapers over the next three weeks. It is a different challenge to stand up in the final and bag the target times which is their only chance to qualify and the standards we have set are definitely demanding.”
Full results: www.akswim.co.nz