State NZ Open Swimming Championships - Day 6 Heats

Wellington Paralympian Mary Fisher starred in the morning session on the final day of the State New Zealand Swimming Championships in Auckland today.

The 20 year old from the Capital club broke the world record in the 100m butterfly for S11 classified disabled swimmers, clocking 1:17.25 which was two seconds under the previous mark. It was the fourth world record broken by the partially blind swimmer this week.

Fellow London star Sophie Pascoe was just outside the world record in heats of the 100m freestyle but set herself up well for a crack at her fifth world mark this week in the evening finals.

Roskill Magic sprinter Nielsen Varoy topped qualifiers in heats of the 50m freestyle in 22.94, just over half a second outside the qualifying time for the world championships. He was ahead of Australian-based Christchurch swimmer Cameron Simpson, who competed in the world short course championships in December.

Laura Quilter was fastest in qualifying in the 50m butterfly in 27.40 just ahead of North Shore clubmate and titleholder Samantha Richter and 100m butterfly winner Sophia Batchelor (AquaGym).

Backstroke star Gareth Kean (Capital) surprised the butterfly specialists to be fastest in heats of the 100m fly in 54.86 ahead of 200m champion Shaun Burnett (North Shore), while Batchelor was best in heats of the 200m backstroke.

Olympian Tash Hind led a Capital club trifecta in heats of the 400m individual medley ahead of clubmates Samantha Lucie-Smith and Emily McGill in 4:54.14, while 200m winner Mitchell Donaldson (North Shore) edged training partner Nathan Capp (Greerton) in heats of the men’s 400m individual medley with both going under the FINA B standard.

The final night of finals starts at 6.30pm tonight, with the team to July’s FINA World Championships will be named tomorrow.

Full results: www.swimmingnz.org.nz