Membership

Commonwealth Games medalist Dean Kent was in stunning form on the penultimate night of finals at the New Zealand Youth and Open Swim Championships in Christchurch tonight.

Kent, 27, established the first national record of the meet, breaking an 11-year-old mark for the 200m breaststroke at the QE2 Pool.

The North Shore swimmer, along with the rest of the Commonwealth Games and world championship squad, were not expected to produce fast times after an exhausting month of top level competition. And they flew from Shanghai directly to the week-long championships in Christchurch.

Kent clocked 2:15.98 to top qualifiers in the preliminary final to take nearly two seconds off the previous record set by Paul Kent at the 1995 Pan Pacs in Atlanta.

“Dean was outstanding tonight. He is a strong breaststroker which is a key part of his success in medley swimming,” Swimming New Zealand high performance director, Clive Rushton said.

“And it shows the quality of our leading swimmers who have overcome the odds and are producing some excellent results this week. Dean believes he has more in him yet in tomorrow night’s finals which is great.”

Two of his Commonwealth Games teammates took out titles tonight with Glenn Snyders (pictured) winning the 50m breaststroke final, and Andrew McMillan claiming the 200m freestyle. Snyders clocked 29.18 to dominate the final. Just turned 19 years, Snyders’ time was just inside his national 18 years age group mark.

McMillan followed up his win in the Commonwealth Games trials in December with a win in the same event, clocking 1:51.86 to hold off world short course championship team-mate Robert Voss by half a second with Michael Jack (Wet Auckland Aquatics) a close third.

Christchurch swimmer Megan Allan (Aquagym) impressed with an aggressive performance to win the 200m butterfly final in 2:17.80.

The championship finishes tomorrow.

Day 4 finals:

50m breaststroke: Glenn Snyders (North Shore) 29.18, 1; Aidan Crouch (Parnell) 30.18, 2; Matthew Goodwin (Temuka) 30.26, 3.

200m butterfly: Megan Allan (Aqau Gym) 2:17.40, 1; Nicola Sutherland (Waves) 2:19.19, 2; Abby Shaw (Aqua Gym) 2:20.08, 3.

200m freestyle: Andrew McMillan (Neptune) 1:51.86, 1; Robert Voss (North Shore) 1:52.31, 2; Michael Jack (West Auckland Aquatics) 1:52.81, 3.