Snyders Misses Out on Final After NZ Record

North Shore’s Glenn Snyders could not convert his New Zealand record in the morning into a place in the final on the opening day of swimming at the London Olympics.

He failed to find his best form this evening in the 100 breaststroke final after he sent the New Zealand swim camp buzzing this morning with his national record time of 59.78s. He could not find the same rhythm tonight to clock 1min 00.15s to be 15th in the semifinal after he was fifth fastest qualifier after the heats.

The 25-year-old said he was disappointed with his semifinal effort. “I gave it everything, but it just wouldn’t come tonight,” he said. “I felt I was up there at the turn, but it wasn’t as smooth as I would have liked.”
Snyders looked well-placed in second place at the 50m mark, but he began labouring over the final stages. “I could feel myself fading badly over that last 20 metres.”

Though he’d have liked more, Snyders can hardly be disappointed with his 100m breaststroke effort. He smashed his own New Zealand record by 0.16s and as he said, even his semifinal time was respectable.
He will now focus his efforts on the 200m breaststroke on Tuesday.

Earlier he was pleased with his morning swim.

“I wanted to go under [the one-minute mark] and did that. Now I just have to get myself ready to do it all again tonight in the semis.”  The fastest qualifier was Australian Christian Sprenger, with 59.62s.

Meanwhile Matthew Stanley was the first New Zealander up in the pool, in the 400m freestyle. Stanley, 20, was fifth in his heat in a time of 3min 49.44s, which placed him 14th among the 28 entrants in the event. His time was nearly two seconds down on his national record.

Southlander Natalie Wiegersma finished fifth in her heat of the women’s 400m individual medley in a time of 1min 44.78s, three seconds below her best. She finished 19th of the 35 entrants in the event.
And the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay combination also finished outside the time they set at the Olympic Trials to miss out on a spot in the final.

In action tomorrow is Melissa Ingram in the 100m backstroke, Matthew Stanley in the 200m freestyle, Daniel Bell and Gareth Kean in the 100m backstroke and Lauren Boyle in the 400m freestyle.

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