Medals elude swimmers at World University Games
The medals again eluded New Zealand swimmers on the fourth night of finals in the pool at the World University Games in Bangkok.
Corney Swanepoel and Moss Burmester finished fifth and sixth respectively in the 100m butterfly while North Shore clubmate Liz Coster was seventh in the A final of the 100m backstroke at the Thammasat University Aquatic Centre.
New Zealand won a relay medal at the 2005 World University Games two years ago and the last individual medal was Anthony Mosse in 1985.
Swanepoel won his morning heat of the 100m butterfly in 53.30, which was second fastest but he only improved fractionally to 53.14 in the final won by top qualifier Darryl Rudolf (Canada).
The 21 year old Millennium Institute swimmer was last at the turn and showed his class to mow down the field with the fastest final 50m of 27.78s before he ran out of real estate just 25/100th of a second from the gold medal.
Burmester, who disappointed when he faded to fifth in his favoured 200m butterfly, made a fast start on the way to a personal best of 53.17 as his clubmate pipped him on the line for fifth.
Coster produced another excellent effort to finish seventh in the final of the 100m backstroke in 1:02.61, slightly faster than her morning heat and 8/10ths of a second away from a medal.
Her clubmate Melissa Ingram (pictured) was fourth in the B final of the same race, only 5/100ths of a second from third place.
North Shore’s Robert Voss was seventh in the B final of the 400m freestyle.
NZ results, day 4 finals:
A finals:
100m butterfly: Darryl Rudolf (CAN) 52.89, 1; Takashi Tamyama (JPN) 52.97, 2; Sergii Brens (UKR) 53.01, 3; Corney Swanepoel (NZL) 53.14, 5; Moss Burmester (NZL) 53.17, 6.
100m backstroke: Aya Terakawa (JPN) 1:01.50, 1; Kateryna Zubkova (UKR) 1:01.67, 2; Yanyan Chen (CHN) 1:01.87, 3; Liz Coster (NZL) 1:02.61, 6.
B Finals:
400m freestyle: Robert Voss (NZL) 4:05.84, 7.
100m backstroke: Melissa Ingram (NZL) 1:02.91, 4.
