Preliminary rounds of the 2011 New Zealand Swimming Championship: Day three - Recap
The 2011 New Zealand Swimming Championship continued successfully on its third day in Auckland, with the aim to finalise New Zealand’s squad for the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, this July.
The championship will provide a chance to the winners of every event to compete against the world’s best in China.
The morning session of the championship featured the preliminary rounds of the Men’s 50m breast-stroke, 200m butterfly and the 800m freestyle, along with the sole event of the Women’s 200m freestyle.
The session started with the aggressive swim of national swimmers in the event of the Men’s 50m breast-stroke. The heat included 18 swimmers aiming to occupy the fastest qualification spot into the final. North Shore Swimming’s Glenn Snyders took a comfortable
lead and posted 28.39 seconds to qualify as the fastest swimmer into the final. Roskill Swimming Club’s Luke Westgaard and another North Shore’s pupil, Nicholas Ferrif, followed him in the finals for the second and third fastest qualification spot in a time
of 29.39 and 29.50 seconds, respectively. The event was considered as one of the toughest of the session, as the top five finishers had a time between 29.00 and 30.00 seconds.
Next were the preliminary rounds of the 200m butterfly, where Laser Mt Eden Swimming Club’s Velimir Stjepanovic dominated his way into the final with a stupendous swim of 2:03.13 minutes. Stjepanovic’s timing provided him a slight lead from North Shore Swimming’s
Shaun Burnett, who touched the wall in 2:03.45 minutes to earn the second fastest qualification. Burnett was followed by his team-member Andrew McMillan, who touched the wall in a time of 2:04.17 minutes to proceed into the finals.
In the Women’s 200m freestyle heats, the nation’s favourite and current record holder of the 400m freestyle, Lauren Boyle, distinguished herself from others by posting a time under the 2:00.00 minutes. Boyle was the only one to complete the race in 1:59.83
minutes and was considerably ahead of Capital Swim Club’s Tash Hind, who touched the wall for the second spot in 2:00.74 minutes. Motueka Swimming Club’s Amaka Gessler appeared as the third fastest qualifying swimmer in a time of 2:01.48 minutes.
The Men’s 800m freestyle was the last event of the day, where Aquabladz Taranaki Swim Club’s Dylan Dunlop Barrett dominated his way into the final with a time of 8:03.09 minutes. Barrett won the hearts of arena by demonstrating a wonderful swim that kept
the second fastest swimmer, Swim Rotrua’s Kane Radford, 18 seconds away from him. Radford touched the wall for the second place in 8:21.52 minutes ahead of Waterhole Swimming Club’s Michael Mincham, who clocked 8:23.63 minutes.
The finals of the same events will be conducted in the evening session to identify the swimmers that will compete at the 2011 World Championships.
Tags: