About us

Brilliant Auckland teenager Orinoco Faamausili-Banse swam his way into the Beijing Olympic frame with a record performance on the second night of finals at the New Zealand age group swim championships in Christchurch tonight.

Banse set the fastest time in the world this year for a 17 year old in winning the 17-18 years 100m freestyle final at the QE2 Leisure Centre. The Laser Mt Eden club swimmer clocked 51.08s which was 4/10ths of a second inside the 1990 record held by John Steele.

It was the fastest time in the year for his age group by some 6/10ths of a second and underlined Banse’s remarkable potential ahead of this month’s Olympic trials in Auckland.

Swimming New Zealand will stage a special time trial at that meet to attempt to qualify a men’s 4x100m freestyle relay and Banse’s time tonight is likely to ensure his selection for the squad to attempt the qualifying time.

If the squad manages the qualifying time in that trial, Banse will need to lower his time by a further 2/10ths of a second to record a FINA B time to secure his place in the team.

His performance was the only national age group record tonight, with visiting swimmers from New South Wales and Japan dominating the younger age groups with the 17-18 years division winners tonight including Amaka Gessler (Aquagym, Christchurch) in the 200m freestyle, Brett Newall (West Auckland Aquatics) in the 400m individual medley, Jess Blundell (North Shore) in the 100m backstroke and Chris Kerr (Enterprise Gisborne) in the 50m butterfly.

The championships continue until Saturday.