Age group swimmers bag records in Trans Tasman opener
New Zealand’s age group swim team broke seven national records against the super-hot Australian emerging talent in the open round of the Trans Tasman series in New South Wales today.
They gained two wins and 18 podium places in the two sessions at Woy Woy on the Central Coast.
While New Zealand swimmers lifted their performances, they found the Australians had gone up two notches, with the kiwis in third place behind Australia Green and Australia Gold.
“Overall we were delighted with our performances today. In the second test session today we set national age group records in all but one event but that was still not good enough to earn a win,” head coach Simon Mayne said.
“We won this session at the same meet last year but the Australians have really stepped up their game considerably.
“We can only concentrate on what we are doing, and the performances were excellent.”
The wins went to Starn Simpson (West Auckland Aquatics) and Gareth Kean (Capital) who took out the final of the skins for the breaststroke and backstroke respectively, both establishing national age records in the process.
The other national records fell to Laura Baker, sister of the well-performed Cara Baker, in the 800m freestyle in 8:46.56, Kean with his skins win in 25.57 in the 50m backstroke and 100m, Simpson in the breaststroke skins final and Mitchell Donaldson (North Shore) in the 200m individual medley.
Clarke was in outstanding form to record 28.87s to finish second in the female 50m backstroke skins, which earned a highly impressive 848 FINA points, the highest of any New Zealander at Woy Woy.
The second test takes place at Wagga Wagga in New South Wales with the first session tomorrow night and final session on Thursday morning.
The final test is in Canberra on Friday and Saturday
Points Day 2: Australia Green 231, Australia Gold 228, New Zealand 156
