FINA World 25m Swimming Championships - NZ Day 2

Twenty-four year old Aucklander Lauren Boyle sits on top of the world after claiming the gold medal on the second day of finals at the FINA World Short Course Championships in Turkey today.

Boyle, coached by Mark Regan at Swimming New Zealand High Performance Centre, took over from world champion Lotte Friis mid-race and storming away to win in 8:08.62, just 0.4s outside the championship record.

She is just the second individual New Zealand swimmer to win a gold medal at the world championships short course, following on from Moss Burmester in 2008.

Boyle took a remarkable seven seconds off her own national record, and also broke the New Zealand record for the 400m, going through in 4:01.85 which was inside Melissa Ingram’s record of 4:02.03 set in Tokyo last year.

"I was really really happy. It has always been a dream and just really happy,” Boyle said. “It is something that you never really know if you can achieve so I think I am lucky to have had an opportunity like this.

“I am really glad that I kept myself in good track after the Olympics to take hold of this opportunity when it came.”

Boyle said that she had not thought about the podium before the race.

“I wanted to improve my time. What I have learned over the years is that you don’t know how fast people will swim at the competition. It was all about swimming my own race and improving my own time, especially here in a timed finals you never really know what is going to happen.”

She knew she could not match the early world record pace of Friis.

“I saw her go out fast. I knew I had to stay strong. If I had followed her I wouldn’t have done as well because it takes a lot of energy for me to go that fast. At the same time I didn’t try to count myself out when I saw her so far ahead of me. It was a little bit expected.

“I could see myself catching her up and I told myself to keep going but I didn’t know if there was someone ahead of her.”

It was a poignant moment for her coach Mark Regan. As the former national coach of Denmark, he guided Friis to her Olympic medal and tonight watch his new star win ahead of the Danish champion.

“It was pretty special. That was a really, really good swim by Lauren. It is not often you break two national records in the same race,” Regan said.

“To come out of the training pool with no competition and go seven seconds faster than before just shows what a talent she is. We’ve worked hard and now Lauren is starting to believe.”

It is New Zealand swimming’s 11th medal in world championship short course and just the third gold to go with Burmester’s victory in the 200m butterfly at Manchester in 2008 and the men’s medley relay victory at Rio de Janeiro in 1995.

Friis set a blistering early pace on world record schedule to open up a telling advantage, with the New Zealander leading the push to claw her back. The Danish swimmer led by two seconds at the 200m mark but by the 400m Boyle and edged ahead, with American champion Chloe Sutton and Great Britain Olympic finalist Hannah Miley.

Boyle paced herself superbly churning out consistent splits between 30.27 and 30.62 to push clear, winning by more than two seconds from Friis with Sutton edging out Miley a massive second seconds behind the stunning Kiwi.

It was after midnight before Boyle had returned to the hotel following the media commitments and doping control and will be a real test as she is back in the pool for the 400m freestyle in the morning.

It was a day of records for the New Zealanders with Australian-based Cantabrian Cameron Simpson breaking his national record to advance to the semifinals in the 50m freestyle. He clocked 21.62s which edged under his previous record set recently at the FINA World Cup meet in Dubai.

He could not replicate that in the evening semifinal clocking 21.81 and did not advance to the final. However after coming into the championships as the 20th fastest he has considerably improved his ranking, with the 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle to come.

Results:

800m freestyle: Lauren Boyle (NZL) 8:08.62, 1 (NZ Record); Lotte Friis (DEN) 8:10.99, 2; Chloe Sutton (USA) 8:15.53, 3.

50m freestyle, semifinal: Vladimir Morozov (RUS) 20.95, 1; Andriii Govorov (UKR) 21.27, 2; Marco Orsi (ITA) 21.37, 3. Also: Cameron Simpson 21.81, 8.

CAPTION: Lauren Boyle in action, enjoying the win and on the podium after winning the 800m freestyle gold medal at the FINA World Championships 25m in Turkey today.

FINA World Championships (25m)