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US-based Lauren Boyle (pictured) produced an encouraging return to form to spark another record-breaking session on the penultimate night of finals at the Oceania Championships in Christchurch.

Boyle, far from her best at the recent Olympic Trials, showed she will be a key to New Zealand’s Beijing relay chances with a winning effort in the 400m freestyle at the QEII Leisure Centre tonight.

New Zealand won four of the 10 finals decided tonight, with the kiwis now tied on 14 wins with Australia with one night remaining. Seven of tonight’s victories were swum in Oceania championship records including the New Zealand wins from Olympic-bound Glenn Snyders, Melissa Ingram and the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team.

The quartet of Mark Herring, Orinoco Faamausili-Banse, William Benson and Cameron Gibson now face an anxious three-week wait to see if they will qualify for Beijing. They were unable to improve on the national record they set at the Olympic Trials tonight. They won but were more than two seconds slower that their New Zealand record time of 3:17.45.

Their time in trials is currently the fourth fastest in the world of the non-qualified teams, with four countries to be added for Beijing at the end of the qualifying period on 30 June.

Boyle enjoyed a personal best effort in winning the 400m freestyle.

Boyle, who is on scholarship at the University of California, Berkley, produced a well constructed even-split effort.

“I am very happy with it. It felt like a good race. The 400 is always pretty tough but at this stage of the season I am pleased with how it is going,” Boyle said.

Boyle is pleased to find solid form after her indifferent Olympic Trials when her university commitments seriously compromised her performance.

“The preparation was not good coming back from the NCAA Championships that finished the day before the Olympic Trials started. So it was never going to be an amazing trial for me so I am glad that I am able to swim my best times now with so much more work ahead to improve further.”

She will now stay home until the Olympics where she will swim the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay, the event in which she played a key role in the bronze medal performance at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

“I think our relay chances look quite good at this stage. All the girls are swimming fast and we still have a lot more to go. We will have a pretty positive outlook going into Beijing.”

Olympic backstroker Liz Coster broke the first New Zealand open record of the meet in the 100m butterfly tonight.

The Aucklander had to be content with second place, out-touched by Australia’s Amy Smith but her time of 1:00.07 was nearly 3/10ths of a second inside her own national open record.

Snyders, the men’s 50m breaststroke titleholder, was impressive in setting a new championship record, winning in 28.31.

The Beijing Olympian said it was a much improved swim from his morning heat.

“It felt good, a lot better than this morning. I’ve been training well and I felt good tonight,” Synders said.

“Tonight I set myself a 28.5 and so I was happy to go 28.3. I wanted to keep my stroke separated which I didn’t do in the morning heat. It was a lot more rushed in the heat.

“Tonight I tried to separate the arms and the legs and get a good start off the blocks and I did that. So I am happy with that especially coming off such a big training camp.”

Ingram was very solid in a commanding display, winning the 200m backstroke comfortably in 2:11.03, a championship record and close to her own national best time.

Australia finished with five wins tonight, while Ryan Pini scored the first victory for Papua New Guinea.

Pini, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist, edged out New Zealand record holder Corney Swanepoel in a superb race, clocking 52.33, a championship record, with the kiwi only 2/10ths behind.

World short course 200m butterfly champion Moss Burmester, pushed out of the A final after an indifferent morning heat swim, won the B final in 53.09, a time that would have won the bronze in the A final.

The Australians wins went to the brilliant Robert Hurley, Jessica Legge, Smith and the women’s relay combination.

Hurley had two further wins tonight to bring his tally to five so far. He took out the 400m freestyle in 3:53.56 ahead of compatriot and 1500m winner Theodore Pasialis and came from behind to edge out New Zealand’s Cameron Stanley to win the 200m backstroke in 2:01.23 – both of them in championship records.

Lange grabbed her second title of the meet with a championship record performance of 32.22 in winning the 50m breaststroke ahead of the New Zealand representative Annabelle Carey.

The Australian women were far too strong in the 4x100m freestyle relay, winning just ahead of their B team.

The championships conclude tomorrow.