State New Zealand Open Championships – Day 2 Wrap

Top performers Lauren Boyle and Glenn Snyders added further Commonwealth Games qualifying performances on the second night of the State New Zealand Open Championships in Auckland tonight.

Boyle clocked the sixth fastest time in the year this year to dominate the 800m freestyle, following her effort in qualifying in the 200m freestyle on the opening night.

Snyders also backed up from victory under the qualifying mark in the 200m breaststroke last night with a win under the Glasgow mark in the 100m breaststroke.

In fact the US-based North Shore swimmer bettered the mark in 1:00.52 in the morning heats and reduced that to 1:00.39 in the final, the fifth fastest time in the world this year and fourth fastest in the Commonwealth.

Snyders was satisfied to swim faster from heat to final and to go under the standard twice but knows he needs more improvement.

“I wanted to come to these trials basically to qualify and save the best for Glasgow,” Snyders said.

“It was good to get it done this morning and tonight was about seeing what I could do.

“I went a little faster that is good. I am happy with it but not too happy. I have two and a half months to Glasgow and enough time to improve and get faster and work on the little things that were not so good tonight.”

Snyders won in 1:00.39 from Ben Walsh (Porirua) and Julian Layton (Greendale).

Boyle was also pleased with her solid performance, clocking 8:27.48 to win the 800m freestyle in the sixth fastest time in the world this year.

The 26 year old from United reeled off laps of 1m03s for the first 500m before easing to 1:04 for the final 300m.

“It’s always good to get a qualifying time so I’m pleased with that,” Boyle said.

“I felt pretty tired tonight but I have to be able to produce good results every day if I am going to swim all the races at Commonwealths.  This is good practice.

“I probably need to produce more consistent speed work under pressure for longer in training.

“I need to take my illness recently into account but I really do not like to have any excuse not to swim my best. I try not to do that for myself.”

Boyle (United) won in 8:27.48 from Wellington’s Emma Robinson (Capital) in 8:37.30, under the mark for the Pan Pacific Championships, with Monique King (North Shore) third.

Earlier brilliant teenage prospect Corey Main (Howick Pakuranga) and 29 year old Kurt Crosland (Neptune) duelled it out in the men’s 200m backstroke, hoping to push each other under the qualifying time for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Main, who is in his first year on scholarship at the University of Florida, edged his way to victory in 2:00.65 with Crosland just 0.2s behind, but two seconds off the qualifying mark for Glasgow.

Both swimmers have a further chance of qualification with Crosland in the 100m backstroke and Main in the 200m freestyle, both to be swum tomorrow.

Two outstanding swimmers for the future, 14 year old Gabrielle Fa’amausili (Roskill) and Bobbi Gichard (Greendale) fought a head to head battle in the women’s 100m backstroke.

Fa’amausili, the junior world champion over 50m backstroke, was ahead at the turn in 29.77 and out-touched Gichard in 1:01.32 with just 2/100ths of a second separating the pair.

Both swimmers went under the qualifying time for August’s Pan Pacific Championships on the Gold Coast that comprises full strength teams from USA, Canada, Japan and Australia among others.

Wellington’s Samantha Lee prevailed in the 100m butterfly in a personal best 59.52 to edge out record holder Sophia Batchelor (Aquagym) and last night’s 50m butterfly winner Laura Quilter (North Shore).

Last night’s 400m freestyle winner and Glasgow qualifier Matt Stanley added his second title of the meet in the men’s 100m freestyle.

Fifty metre sprint specialist Nielsen Varoy (West Auckland) set the pace but was swamped inside the final 15 metres with Stanley (Matamata) out-touching his rivals. He won in 50.21 from Swimming New Zealand High Performance training mates Steven Kent (Coast) 50.54 and Ewan Jackson (Howick Pakuranga) 50.83.

In other swims open water specialist Kane Radford (Rotorua) clocked 8:07.11 to out-touch top qualifier Michael Mincham (Waterhole) who clocked 8:07.37. Samantha Lee (Capital) took out the 100m butterfly, Laura Quilter (North Shore) the 50m freestyle to go with the 50m butterfly title last night, Paul Benson (Sundevils) claimed the 50m butterfly, Natasha Lloyd (North Canterbury) the 50m breaststroke.

In para-swimming action, multi world champions Sophie Pascoe and Mary Fisher impressed in their outstanding performances to win the 50m butterfly and 200m individual medley respectively.

The meet continues until Friday.

NZ Open Championships