Four more finals for New Zealand swimmers
New Zealand swimmers will contest four finals on the last night of competition at the 8th Fina world short course championships in China tonight (local time).
Backstroke stars Hannah McLean and Liz Coster will race in the 50m final, while Moss Burmester, Helen Norfolk and the men’s 4x100m medley relay team won through from this morning’s heats in Shanghai.
Burmester was only fifth fastest in the last of five heats but it was by far the fastest with the New Zealander grabbing the seventh qualifying spot for tonight’s final.
The big and powerful North Shore swimmer is more at home in the long course version than the 25m competition where speed on the turns is a key.
However he will be keen to further advance his international reputation over the 200m after winning the gold medal a the Commonwealth Games with an eye on Danyon Loader’s New Zealand record of 1:54.21 in tonight’s final.
Norfolk earned the last spot in the 200m freestyle with a personal best 1:58.89 and will look to the national record of 1:57.36 in the final.
The men’s medley relay combination of Scott Talbot-Cameron, Dean Kent, Corney Swanepoel and Cameron Gibson set a New Zealand record of 3:35.54 to be the seventh fastest in the heats. This was two seconds inside the previous mark
Earlier Gibson could not repeat his form from the Commonwealth Games and could not advance in the 200m backstroke while Wellington’s Kelly Bentley just missed out in the heats of the 200m breaststroke where a time matching her national record would have seen her in the final.
New Zealand results, day 5 heats:
- 200m backstroke: Cameron Gibson 2:00.76, 15th.
- 200m breaststroke: Kelly Bentley 2:29.88, 11th; Annabelle Carey 2:39.00, 20.
- 200m butterfly: Moss Burmester 1:55.64, 7th; Andrew McMillan 2:00.99, 20.
- 200m freestyle: Helen Norfolk 1:58.89, 8th; Melissa Ingram 2:03.57, 35.
- 1500m freestyle: Daniel Ryan 15:35.18
- Men’s 4x100m medley relay: New Zealand 3:35.54, 7th (NZ record).
