World Swimming Championship Trials

The State New Zealand Open Swimming Championships take place from this Sunday 16 March to Friday 22 March at the West Wave Aquatic Centre, Henderson.

The event doubles as the official trial for the 2013 FINA World Championships to be staged in Barcelona from 19 July to 4 August.

The annual State Swimming New Zealand Awards will be staged on Saturday 23 March in Auckland.

There are over 1000 event entries in the championships including 25m World Champion Lauren Boyle and fellow London Olympians Matt Stanley, Glenn Snyders, Melissa Ingram, Dylan Dunlop-Barrett, Steven Kent, Amaka Gessler, Andrew McMillan, Hayley Palmer, Tash Hind, Gareth Kean and Samantha Lucie-Smith.

There are record entries from AWD swimmers including London Paralympic gold medallists Sophie Pascoe, Mary Fisher and Cameron Leslie.

Heats are from 10am each day and finals from 6.30pm.

To qualify for the World Championships, swimmers will need to equal or better the FINA A standard, while qualification for the Junior World Championships will need to equal or better the FINA B standard.

Coverage:

Swimming NZ, through its media management contractor Sports Media NZ ltd, will provide two previews tomorrow and Friday. During the event there will be a short wrap of morning heats, full wrap and results of evening finals before 9pm with a free to use image.

Some audio interviews will also be supplied.

The event will be covered by Sky Television with a one hour package screen the following day. Screen details on www.swimmingnz.org.nz.

Media are cordially invited to attend. If you wish to cover the event please notify the Media Manager, Ian Hepenstall as there is limited working space at the pool.

For further details contact:

IAN HEPENSTALL  Media Manager Swimming NZ High Performance Sports Media NZ Ltd Tel 09 2327822 Mob 0275 613181 E: ian@sportsmedianz.com Skype: kiwiheps