Games Swimmers Impress in Local Winter Championships

Most of New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games swim team had encouraging hit outs at the Auckland winter championships over the weekend.

Melissa Ingram, Glenn Snyders where particularly impressive with strong showings from Daniel Bell, Penelope Marshall, Moss Burmester, Hayley Palmer and Tash Hind at the West Wave Aquatic Centre in Waitakere City.

Ingram (High Performance Centre) took out the 200m backstroke final in 2:05.42, only a second off her own national short course record set two years ago, with fellow Delhi clubmate Marshall second and close to her best competition time in 2:08.86.

Snyders (HPC) won the 50m breaststroke in a classy 27.67s, less than 7/10ths of a second outside his own 2009 national record and followed with victory in the 100m breaststroke in 1:00.60 in one of his best ever times in full work.

Top backstroker Bell (HPC) won the 200m backstroke in 1:56.00 before surprising many when he finished second in the 400m freestyle in a sprightly 4:01.54. The eye-catching display came in the 400m freestyle won by North Shore’s Matt Stanley, formerly from Matamata, who won in a superb 3:48.94. Stanley is preparing for the first Youth Olympics in Singapore next month where he will be joined by North Shore’s Chloe Francis (North Shore) who won the 400m freestyle in a strong 4:13.55 and the 200m butterfly in 2:15.74

Burmester had a heavy workload including the preliminaries of the 400m freestyle but was narrowly beaten in his favoured 200m butterfly by up-and-comer Brett Newall (United) in a close duel before bouncing back to win the 200m freestyle in a solid 1:50.68.

Beijing Olympian Hayley Palmer won the 100m freestyle in a slick 54.90 just ahead of Delhi clubmate Tash Hind in 55.06, while she also won the 100m medley in 1:02.01.
The squad are still in heavy workload before starting speed work and taper for the Pan Pacific Championships in California in three weeks.