Five swimmers under world qualifying in State NZ Short Course Champs

Five swimmers have gone under the tough qualifying standards for the world championships at the State New Zealand Short Course Championships in Wellington this week.

The five swimmers produced seven performances under the qualifying standard for the world championships in Turkey in December. With Melissa Ingram, Glenn Snyders and Cameron Simpson also achieving qualifying times at the FINA World Cup in Dubai, New Zealand could be taking one of its biggest teams to the world championships.

It was a case of nearly but not quite on the final night with two close misses for qualifying at the Kilbirnie Aquatic Centre tonight.

Olympian Lauren Boyle, who had already met the qualifying standards in the 400m and 800m freestyle, just missed out on adding a third qualifying time on her way to winning the 200m freestyle. She won in 1:57.12 to be less than a second outside world championship time.

Howick Pakuranga’s Corey Main, who had bettered the standard in the 100m backstroke, won the 200m backstroke tonight. He won in 1:54.39 to be only 16/100ths of a second outside the qualifying time.

In other swims Christchurch’s Abbie Johnston (Aquagym) took out the 100m breaststroke in 1:09.46 by just 4/100ths of a second from 200m champion Katie Kenneally (Neptune), while London Olympian Andrew McMillan (Cromwell) won the 200m butterfly in 1:57.92 from Shaun Burnett (North Shore).

The swimmers to better the FINA A qualifying times for the world championships were: Lauren Boyle (North Shore) 400m freestyle, 800m freestyle; Matthew Stanley (Matamata) 400m freestyle, Ewan Jackson (Howick Pakuranga) 400m freestyle; Corey Main (Howick Pakuranga) 100m backstroke; Sophia Batchelor (Aquagym) 100m butterfly, 200m backstroke.

Day 5 Open Results:

Women 100m breaststroke: Abbie Johnston (AquaGym) 1:09.46, 1; Katie Kenneally (Neptume) 1:09.50, 2; Kendall Reidy (Central Hawkes Bay) 1:10.59, 3.

Men 200m butterfly: Andrew McMillan (Cromwell) 1:57.92, 1; Shaun Burnett (North Shore) 2:00.00, 2; Corneille Coetzee (Coast) 2:03.07, 3.

Women 200m freestyle: Lauren Boyle (North Shore) 1:57.12, 1; Samantha Lee (Capital) 1:58.44, 2; Tash Hind (Capital) 1:58.48, 3.

200m backstroke: Corey Main (Howick Pakuranga) 1:54.39, 1; Kurt Crosland (Neptune) 1:55.42, 2; Benjamin Gillies (North Shore) 1:57.90, 3.