Commonwealth Games 2010: Team New Zealand Swimming performance
Canada had a good evening on the first day of the 19th Commonwealth Games, since 3 of its swimming champions won away medals. Ryan Cochrane was the hero for Swimming Canada yesterday evening since he clinched the gold medal in the 400 metre freestyle
event. He also told his fans to look out for his better performance in the same event at the 2012 London Olympics.
As for the New Zealand swimmers, they have all made it to the semi-final events of the Commonwealth Games. All the members of the New Zealand team gave brilliant performances at heat races on the first day of the Games and secured their places at the semi-final
meets with Glenn Snyders swimming in the 100 metre men’s breaststroke. Glenn came second in the qualifying race by finishing the swim in 1 minute and 1.30 seconds.
In the women events, Hayley Palmer made it to the semis with the second fastest qualifying time in the women’s 100 metre freestyle, meanwhile her compatriots Natasha Hind and Penelope Marshall landed on the 10th and 11th places.
In the men’s 50 metre butterfly event, Daniel Bell of New Zealand was the ninth fastest qualifier for the semi final. In the men’s 50 metre backstroke heats race, Gareth Kean of New Zealand landed on the fifth spot in a time of 25.08 seconds. Daniel Bell
was the sixth position qualifier with a time of 25.90 seconds. In the heats event of the women’s 200 metre freestyle, Lauren Boyle of New Zealand was the third fastest qualifier with a time of 1 minute and 59.33 seconds. In the same event, Natasha Hind was
the ninth fastest with a time of 2 minutes and 00.35 seconds. Penelope finished the heats in a time of 2 minutes and 01.35 seconds, being the eleventh fastest qualifier.
Moving on to the women’s 100 metre backstroke, Melissa Ingram of New Zealand was the fifth fastest swimmer in the qualifying event. Emily Thomas of New Zealand also qualified for the women’s 100 metre backstroke in the 10th place. The semis will
be held after 11.30 IST at S.P. Mukherjee Swimming Complex New Delhi.
In the women’s 200 metre individual medley event on the first evening of the Delhi Games, the New Zealand swimmer Natalie Wiegersma managed to overcome her own record in the event, yet she missed winning the bronze medal.
Julia Wilkinson of Team Canada held Wiegersma back and won the bronze medal in a time of 2 minutes and 12.09 seconds, while Natalie finished the race in 2 minutes and 12.12 seconds, breaking her national record. The gold medallist in the event was the Australian
swimmer Alicia Coutts with a time of 2 minutes and 9.70 seconds. Emily Seebohm won away the silver medal with a time of 2 minutes and 10.83 seconds.
Not a very successful swimming day on the first day of competitions for the Team New Zealand swimmers. Hayley Palmer qualified the semi final for the women’s 50 metre butterfly at the same position as the English swimmer Ellen Gandy. Both the swimmers finished
the race in a time of 27.14 seconds. However, the event was supposed to have 8 contenders. Since nine qualified the race, one of them had to drop out. Palmer decided to pull out of the event and save some energy for the 100 metre freestyle event. The head
coach of Swimming New Zealand, Mark Regan said that her main goal was the swim at the 100 metre event and not the 50 metre one.
As for netball, in the pool match, New Zealand defeated Papua New Guinea with score of 102-21. The score after the half time of the match was 57-12.
In the men’s singles of the squash tournaments on the first day of the Delhi Games, New Zealand’s Martin Knight played against Kenya’s Hardeep Reel.
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