Three further records fall at NZ age group swimming
Three further records were broken on the penultimate night of finals at the New Zealand Age Group swim Championships in Christchurch tonight.
Manawatu’s Laura Baker, Wellington’s Gareth Kean and Masterton’s Neil van Wijk all established new national marks at the QE2 Leisure Centre.
Baker, younger sister of national representative Cara Baker, set a new record for the 800m freestyle for 14 years, clocking 9:00.02, which was nearly four seconds inside the old record.
Kean (Capital) produced a brilliant swim to win the 100m backstroke in 57.40s, which equalled the 16 years record held by Auckland’s Kurt Bassett. Kean was the only swimmer under the one minute mark.
Van Wijk followed his earlier record in the 50m breaststroke for 14 years boys by lowering the 200m breaststroke mark to 2:26.07.
The visiting Japanese and New South Wales swimmers stepped up the pressure with a number of fastest times tonight with the other main New Zealand wins in the 17-18 years age group going to Kane Radford (Rotorua) in the 200m freestyle, Annabelle Carey (Aqaugym, Christchurch) in the 100m breaststroke, Jesse Blundell (North Shore) in the 50m backstroke and Sally Green (Swim Zone, Wellington) in the 100m butterfly.
There was an outstanding swim by Alexandra’s Matthew Glassford who won the 17-18 years 200m breaststroke, taking nearly six seconds off his qualifying time to win in 2:21.53s.
The Championships finish tomorrow.
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