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Corney Swanepoel confirmed his return to top form when he was awarded the male swimmer of the meet at the Oceania Championship in Cairns tonight.

The North Shore swimmer was one of two gold medals for the New Zealand contingent on the final night of pool competition, with the 5km open water swim to conclude the championships tomorrow.

Swanepoel followed his outstanding win in the 100m butterfly with a strong effort to win the 50m butterfly in 24.33. His efforts earned him the top prize at the meet, decided on a points system based on performances closest to the world best times.

New Zealand swimmers claimed 16 medals tonight with the other victory going to former Southland swimmer Bryn Murphy, now at Waves club in Dunedin. He set a personal best of 15:43.17 to win the 1500m freestyle and lead a Kiwi clean sweep with Daniel Ryan (Waterhole, Auckland) second and Shane Patience (Raumati) third. Ryan will double up in the 5km open water swim tomorrow.

New Zealand’s elite swimmers in the squad competing at the Oceania meet – Dean Kent, Glenn Snyders, Lauren Boyle and Liz Coster – were all among the medals tonight.

Several newcomers continued to shine tonight with bronze medals to Sarah Vettoretti, Kurt Bassett, Jessie Blundell and Matt Thomas.

Vettoretti (West Auckland Aquatics) was third in the 100m breaststroke in a slick 1:12.88, Bassett (Mt Eden) clocked 58.07 in the 100m backstroke final, Blundell (North Shore) timed at 2:18.76 for her medal in the 200m backstroke and Thomas (Primo Sundevils, Hawkes Bay) clocked 24.83 to finish third in the 50m freestyle final won by Swanepoel.

Both medley relay teams had to be content with second place behind Australia A.

New Zealand finished the pool competition with 43 medals including 10 gold medals, which pleased Swimming New Zealand’s High Performance Director Clive Rushton.

“There were some very good swims from some of our Commonwealth Games swimmers led by Corney Swanepoel and Liz Coster in particular,” Rushton said. “Glenn Snyders was very impressive and Lauren Boyle performed strongly.

“And the next echelon generally responded well to the opportunities. In particular I was very impressed with the performances of Jessie Blundell and Kurt Bassett.

“Kane Radford’s win in the 10km open water swim was a major breakthrough and Bryn Murphy’s time in the 1500m was another important performance.” Murphy will travel to altitude training in New Mexico to prepare for the Pan Pacific Championships next month.

“Overall it was a profitable meet for us. We have some of our elite swimmers in good form, given they have trained through this meet. And several of the next group have put their hands up as they look towards the Panpacs and World Youth Championships to set them up for qualification for next year’s world championships in Melbourne and then Beijing and beyond.”

New Zealand medalists, day 5 Oceania Championships, Cairns:

• 200m breaststroke: Dean Kent (North Shore) 2:19.65, 2; Glenn Snyders 2:20.95, 3.
• 200m freestyle: Lauren Boyle (West Auckland Aquatics) 2:01.92, 3.
• 100m breaststroke: Sarah Vettoretti (West Auckland Aquatics) 1:12.88, 3.
• 100m backstroke: Kurt Bassett (Mt Eden) 58.07, 3.
• 200m individual medley: Dean Kent (North Shore) 2:06.18, 2.
• 200m backstroke: Jessie Blundell (North Shore) 2:18.76, 3.
• 50m butterfly: Corney Swanepoel (North Shore) 24.33, 2; Matt Thomas (Primo Sundevils) 24.83, 3.
• 50m freestyle: Liz Coster (North Shore) 26.63, 2; Boyle 26.76, 3.
• 1500m freestyle: Bryn Murphy (Waves) 15:43.17, 1; Daniel Ryan (Waterhole) 16.00.10, 2; Shane Patience (Raumati) 16:09.60, 3.
• 4x100m medley relay women: New Zealand (Coster, Vettoretti, Megan Allan, Boyle) 4:18.07, 2.
• 4x100m medley relay men: New Zealand (John Zulch, Snyders, Swanepoel, Robert Voss) 3:46.31, 2.