Stanley bags morning qualifying swim for world championships

Rio Olympian Matt Stanley has gone under the qualifying standard for the world championships with an impressive performance on the second morning of heats at the New Zealand Open Championships in Auckland.

Stanley, who is based on the Gold Coast, clocked 1:47.55 which is 0.2s inside the qualifying time for the July’s FINA World Championships in Budapest.

The 25 year old, swimming for the Matamata club, impressed with a strong swim in heats of the 400m freestyle yesterday that set him up for an excellent morning which was only 0.46s outside his New Zealand record.

He finished ahead of fellow Olympic teammates Matthew Hutchins and Corey Main.

This follows three swimmers who qualified on the opening day in Helena Gasson, Main and Emma Robinson at the championships which double as the trials for the world championships, Youth Commonwealth Games and the World University games the Sir Owen G Glenn National Aquatic Centre.

In other heat swims, North Shore’s Carina Doyle topped times in the women’s 200m freestyle in 2:01.71 while Bradlee Ashby (Fairfield) was fastest in the 400m individual medley in 4:29.01.

Leading breaststrokers over 200m were US-based Natasha Lloyd from North Canterbury (2:32.43) and George Schroder from Hokitika (2:14.60).

Gasson set herself for a crack at qualifying for a second event after finishing fastest in heats of the 100m butterfly in 59.18, and will need to break her own national record to reach the mark of 58.48 in tonight’s final.

Wilrich Coetzee from North Shore was fastest in the men’s 100m butterfly in 54.81.

The heats begin daily at 10am and the finals from 7pm. All heats sessions will be streamed live on Swimming New Zealand’s website with finals live on SKY TV.

CAPTION: Matthew Stanley in action at the New Zealand Open Championships. Credit: BW Media.

NZ Open Championships    FINA World Championships