Preliminary rounds of the 2011 New Zealand Swimming Championship: Day five - Recap
Morning session on day five of the 2011 New Zealand Swimming Championship concluded in Auckland, with the preliminary rounds of the five events. The championship provides a chance to the national swimmers to compete with each other in order to attain a place
in the New Zealand Swimming Team for the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, this July.
The session featured the preliminary rounds of five events in the Men’s and Women’s category including the 100m freestyle, 200m backstroke, 200m breast-stroke and the 1500m freestyle.
The session started with the Women’s 100m freestyle heats, where Capital Swim Club’s Tash Hind dominated her swim in a wonderful time of 55.83 seconds to qualify as the fastest swimmer into the final. She was followed by North Shore Swimming’s Hayley Palmer
and Motueka Swimming Club’s Amaka Gessler, who touched the wall for second and third fastest qualification in a time of 55.97 and 56.58 seconds, respectively.
The next event was the Men’s 200m backstroke that witnessed Capital Swim Club’s Gareth Kean ruining the hopes of his fellow swimmers by smashing the fastest qualification spot in 2:04.72 minutes. Kean, with his wonderful timing kept his following swimmers
at a bay of more than three seconds. Howick Pakuranga’s Corey Main appeared as the second fastest swimmer behind Kean and touched the wall in 2:07.20 minutes ahead of the North Shore’s Daniel Bell, who touched the wall third in a time of 2:07.84 minutes. Fourth
and fifth fastest spot was secured by two of the North Shore’s pupil, Ben Gillies and Mitchell Donaldson, who touched the wall in 2:10.87 and 2:11.20 minutes, respectively.
In the Women’s 200m breast-stroke, North Canterbury Swim Club’s Natasha Lloyd dominated her way into the final with a mind blowing swim of 2:35.23 minutes and was comfortably ahead of Neptune Swimming Club’s Katie Kenneally, who touched the wall second in
2:38.22 minutes. North Shore’s Grace Francis and Chloe Francis qualified as the third and fourth fastest swimmers in a time of 2:38.98 and 2:40.51 minutes, respectively.
Moments later, Glenn Snyders of North Shore Swimming produced an impressive swim in the Men’s 200m breast-stroke clocking a time of 2:18.52 minutes to qualify as the fastest swimmer into the final. He was followed by Howick Pakuranga’s Carsten Corazza and
Roskill Swimming Club’s Luke Westgaard, who proved their second and third fastest qualification in a time of 2:20.70 and 2:22.78 minutes, respectively.
The last event of the session was the heats of Men’s 1500m freestyle, where Waterhole Swimming Club’s Phillip Ryan occupied the fastest qualification spot in a time of 16:10.68 minutes ahead of the Dylan Dunlop Barrett and Velimir Stjepanovic, who touched
the wall in 16:11.93 and 16:13.73 minutes, respectively.
The finals of the same events will be conducted in tonight’s session, where the competent swimmers will confirm their spots for the 2011 World Championships.
Tags: