New Zealand swimmers through to eight finals tonight

All New Zealand swimmers in action on the second day have qualified for finals at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa today.

The Kiwi contingent will contest eight finals tonight.

Last night’s stars, Gabrielle Fa’amausili and Bobbi Gichard again starred in the heats today. This time world champion Fa’amausili (United, Auckland) topped qualifiers in her favoured 50m backstroke in 29.56s.

Gichard, who won the 100m backstroke ahead of her friend and rival last night, was second fastest in 29.68s as the pair look to push each other on to the podium in the finals tonight.

Howick Pakuranga’s Bayley Main, who swims on scholarship at the University of Florida, will contest two finals tonight. He qualified third fastest in the men’s 50m backstroke in a personal best 26.83s, and returned later to be seventh fastest in the heats of the 100m freestyle in 52.10s.

Breaststrokers Mario Koenigsperger and Eliot Lundon-Moore both qualified in their first individual swims of the Games. Koenigsperger from the Howick Pakuranga club was third fastest in heats of the 100m breaststroke in 1:04.10, right on his previous best, with Lundon-Moore (Aquabladz, Taranaki) seventh fastest in 1:06.04.

North Shore 16 year old Yeonsu Lee is automatically through in the 400m individual medley which will swim as a straight final tonight.

The quartet of Lee, Gichard, Fa’amausili and Annabelle Paterson will combine to chase a medal in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay.

New Zealand won four medals on the first day, with gold medals to Gichard and Wilrich Coetzee, silver medals to Fa’amausili and a bronze to Main.