Swimming New Zealand takes Commonwealth Games Trials live

Swimming New Zealand will up their profile with April’s State New Zealand Open Championships to be broadcast live.

SKY Television will screen the four days of the championships live from the Westwave Aquatic Centre in Henderson, Auckland from 8 to 11 April, which doubles as the official trial for the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific Championships.

Swimming New Zealand CEO Christian Renford said the move to live television coverage is an important step up for the sport.

“SKY and Swimming New Zealand have been partners for the last few years with delayed coverage of our championships,” said Renford.

“We want to take that to a new level and to profile our swimmers and our sport.

“We have made huge strides as an organisation and obviously on the high performance front we have a multi-world championship medallist in Lauren Boyle and world junior champion in Gabrielle Fa’amausili who are raising the bar for swimming in New Zealand.”

SKY’s Director of Sport, Richard Last, said:

“The 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games will be one of this year’s biggest events on SKY and it’s great to be able to showcase the New Zealand swimmers who will be in action in Glasgow later in the year.”

The championships have been condensed from six days to four providing more top quality swimming including a full programme of events for para swimmers who are also looking for qualification for the Commonwealth Games.

The evening sessions start at the later time of 7pm and finish between 9.30pm and 9.45pm.

“We want more people to have the chance to watch world class swimming as our swimmers strive to meet the Commonwealth Games team selection.  Starting at the later time of 7pm will make it easier for our swimming community and fans to get to the competition venue.”

As well as live coverage on Sky Sport there will also be daily replays.