Stanley leads way in Queensland

Olympian Matt Stanley led the Kiwis on to the podium in the first day of finals at the Queensland Swimming Championships in Brisbane.

Stanley, currently based at the Miami club on the Gold Coast, clocked 1:48:77 to finish second in the 200m freestyle final behind Cameron McEvoy.

The Matamata swimmer, who has just returned from a training block in USA where he trained with Michael Phelps, was a tick faster in his heat but impressed with two slick performances off the back of a hard training block.

Lauren Boyle was seventh in the final of the 200m freestyle in 2:00.06 won by Emma McKeon, with the Kiwi star just returned from a tough training regime at altitude in Spain.

Other New Zealanders in finals included Julian Layton (Greendale) who was fourth in the 200m breaststroke final in 2:14:55 with the race won by Jake Pickard, while Queensland-based Samantha Lee (Capital) was seventh in the final of the 100m butterfly in 1:00.81, also won by McKeon.