Baker turns to freestyle on fourth day of heats at swim trials
Former breaststroke world record holder Zoe Baker was the surprise top qualifier in freestyle on the fourth morning of heats at the Absolute Insurance world championship swim trials in Auckland this morning.
Baker clocked 26.43s in the heats of the 50m freestyle at the West Wave Aquatic Centre.
Her time was 8/10ths of a second off the qualifying mark for the world championships in Melbourne in March, and while Baker says she is not a candidate for that time now, she has earmarked the event for work in progress for next year.
New national record holder in the 50m freestyle, Mark Herring was fastest in heats of the 100m freestyle ahead of 200m champion Michael Jack, both swimmers from the local West Auckland Aquatics club.
World youth champion Natalie Wiegersma (Southland) topped qualifiers in the 200m individual medley ahead of another super-talented 16-year-old Cara Baker (Kiwi West).
Others to top qualifiers in this morning heats include Callum Joll (Napier Aquahawks) in the 50m backstroke, Emma Banks (North Shore) in the 100m butterfly, Glenn Snyders (North Shore) in the 100m breaststroke and Emily Thomas (Comet) in the 50m backstroke.
Tonight’s programme starting at 6pm includes finals of the women’s 100m breaststroke, men’s 50m butterfly with Corney Swanepoel chasing qualification, women’s 200m individual medley and the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay also chasing a Games qualifying time.
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