Glasgow swim squad in Oceania action, Boyle heads to Europe

New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games swimming squad will get some valuable race practice at the Mayfair Pools Oceania Championships starting in Auckland next Tuesday.

The championships have attracted 150 swimmers from 14 countries for the four-day meet that also includes synchronised swimming.

All of the New Zealand team for Glasgow are competing aside from US-based Glenn Snyders and Corey Main and Australian based Mitchell Donaldson, while triple world championship medallist Lauren Boyle is in Europe.

Boyle decided to up the ante in her training regime with a three-week stint alongside some of Spain’s leading swimmers including double Olympic medallist Mireia Bemonte.

She suffered a setback in March when she fell ill during altitude training in USA which affected her build-up to the New Zealand Open Championships.

Boyle now wants to push herself in training to make up lost ground.

“I have to get some really hard work in a competitive environment,” Boyle said.

“I’ve trained with the Spanish group before and that link has allowed me to hook up with Fred Vergnoux, a coach that I admire.

“It will be hard because of the language barrier and I am on my own but it’s what I need to do.”

Boyle will join up with the AquaBlacks team at altitude training in Spain before their pre-Games staging camp in Mallorca.

The Mayfair Pools Oceania Championships run from Tuesday to Friday at the West Wave Aquatic Centre in Henderson with heats from 10am and finals from 6.30pm. The Synchronised Swimming sessions will be held on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 1pm.