Three podiums on final day in Sydney

New Zealand swimmers grabbed three podiums on the final day of the New South Wales State Championships in Sydney last night.

Leading the way was Tauranga’s Nathan Capp who won the 1500m freestyle, which was swum during the morning heats session at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre yesterday.

Capp clocked 15:35.04 to win comfortably from Australians Jack McLoughlin and Nathan Robinson. The Kiwi swimmer is in preparation for April’s national championships where he will be looking to a New Zealand record swim to reach the world championship qualifying mark of 15:13.98.

Commonwealth Games representative Mitchell Donaldson finished third in the 400m individual medley in 4:25.68 behind Pan Pacific freestyle champion Thomas Fraser-Holmes and Glasgow finalist Travis Mahoney. Fellow Kiwi Bradlee Ashby (Fairfield) was seventh in 4:29.77.

Auckland teenage star Gabrielle Fa’amausili finished second in the 50m backstroke behind world championship silver medallist Emily Seebohm in 28.41s. North Shore’s Laura Quilter was eighth in 29.74.

Lauren Boyle missed out on the 200m freestyle final but won the B final in 2A:00.50 which would have placed her sixth in the A final.

Other New Zealand finalists included Greendale club’s Julian Layton who was sixth in the 200m breaststroke in 2:17.51 and North Shore’s Jacob Garrod (2:18.47) eighth.

Coast’s Corneille Coetzee was ninth in the 100m backstroke in 57.39s.