First day final rounds of the 2011 New Zealand Swimming Championship
The second session of the first day of the 2011 New Zealand Swimming Championship features the final rounds of six events for men and women. The Championship witnessed dazzling swims of the various New Zealand swimmers seeking their selection in the national
team to hit the Aquatic Centre of Shanghai for the 2011 World Championships in July.
The session started with the stunning performance of Aqua Gym’s Sophia Batchelor, who proved her fastest qualification into the finals by conquering the gold medal in a time of 59.54 seconds. Batchelor was the only one to hit the wall under 1:00.00 minutes,
as her strongest rival Roskill Swimming Club’s Danielle Koni touched the wall for the silver medal in 1:01.85 minutes. Following her was the North Shore Swimming’s Hayley Palmer, who reached the podium for the bronze medal in 1:02.58 minutes.
The next was the Men’s 400m freestyle final, where the Aquabladz Taranaki Swim Club’s Dylan Dunlop Barrett conquered the podium for a 3:51.27 minutes swim and confirmed his spot for the World Championships in China. He was a second faster than swimmer Laser
Mt. Eden Swimming Club’s Velimir Stjepanovic, who clocked a 3:52.85 minutes to join Barrett in China. They were followed by Matamata’s Matthew Stanley, who won the bronze medal in a time of 3:54.62 minutes.
In the Women’s 200m individual medley final, the arena saw Natalie Wiegersma of Waverley Swimming Club to take the control of the swim after the second lap and she won the gold medal in 2:15.02 minutes. The second and third spot on the podium was secured
by North Shore Swimming’s Grace Francis and Chloe Francis, who ended their swims in 2:17.11 and 2:18.03 minutes respectively.
After a few moments, North Shore’s Daniel Bell and Roskill’s Nielsen Varoy demonstrated a neck-to-neck swim in the Men’s 50m butterfly, with Bell finishing 0.01 seconds ahead of Varoy to win the gold medal. Bell posted 24.12 seconds in contrast to Varoy’s
24.13 seconds and was followed by another Roskill pupil, Corney Swanepoel for the bronze medal in 24.47 seconds.
In the Women’s 400m freestyle, the current record holder for the event, Lauren Boyle displayed a beautiful swim of 4:07.61 minutes that lowered the national record of the event by a considerable two seconds. Capital Swim Club’s Samantha Lucie Smith and Howick
Pakuranga’s Cara Baker followed her to the podium for the silver and bronze medals in 4:15.28 and 4:16.27 minutes respectively.
The last event of the day was the Men’s 100m breast-stroke final, where North Shore’s Glenn Synders and Nicholas Ferrif earned the top two spots on the podium in 1:01.49 and 1:01.93 minutes respectively. Luke Westgaard won the bronze medal in 1:02.53 minutes,
but failed to qualify for China.
The Championship will continue for five more days with the aim of finalising the National team for Shanghai.
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