Batchelor Leads Record Run at State Insurance Age Group Swimming

Christchurch swimmer Sophia Batchelor continued her outstanding season with four national records after the opening two final sessions at the State Insurance New Zealand Age Group Short Course Championships in Wellington.

The championships were moved from the original venue in Christchurch following the earthquakes and the damage to the complex that houses the QEII Leisure Centre.

Batchelor, 15, did not mind the move from her home pool in Christchurch with new national age records in the 50m butterfly, 100m freestyle, 200m backstroke and 100m individual medley at the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre.

Bachelor has already represented New Zealand this year in the Trans Tasman Tri Series, the Oceania Championships and Junior Pan Pacific Championships but showed no signs of effects from her arduous campaign.

She took more than half a second off the 50m butterfly record clocking 27.09k half a second off the 100m freestyle mark in 55.76, two seconds off the 200m backstroke and only one second off Melissa Ingram’s national open record, and half a second off the 100m medley record.

Three other prominent members of the Trans Tasman series also made their mark.
Breaststroker Natasha Lloyd threw off the earthquake ravaged scene in her home in Kaiapoi to claim new records for 14 years in the 400m individual medley by 1.5 seconds and four seconds off the 400m freestyle.

Corey Main and Jeffrey Arona-Tuifana’e, both from Howick Pakuranga, took out records in the 200m backstroke by a second and a half seconds in the 50m breaststroke respectively.

The other record went to Wellington’s Ellen Quirke (Capital) in the 17 years 100m individual medley, taking half a second off Anna Wilson’s mark set in 1995.
The championships continue until Thursday.