Bell leaves best until last in World Championship swim

Eighteen-year-old Daniel Bell left his best until last at the New Zealand Open Championships in Christchurch tonight.

Bell (West Auckland Aquatics) won the 100m backstroke in 54.77s to edge under the qualifying mark for July’s World Championships in Rome – waiting for the final event on the final night at the QE II Leisure Centre to secure his spot.

Bell’s time also guaranteed that New Zealand has qualified a team for the men’s 4x100m medley relay after the earlier times set by Corney Swanepoel (butterfly), Glenn Snyders (breaststroke) and Cameron Gibson (freestyle). This is the same quartet that finished fifth in the final of medley relay at the Beijing Olympics.

It brought the New Zealand team for the World Championships to nine swimmers who have qualified in 15 events.

Bell, currently training in Perth, said he had felt the pressure after missing out in the 100m butterfly earlier in the meet.

“I had been concentrating on butterfly this year so I was pretty disappointed when I did not produce the goods behind Corney and Moss,” Bell said.

“It shook my confidence a bit and I put a lot of pressure on myself. I just tried to remain positive. I knew that the 100m backstroke was my last chance and although I had not spent as much time training on backstroke, I had done the time before.

“It might not have been very pretty and I died a bit coming home, but I got the job done and I am really relieved.”

Swimming New Zealand’s Jan Cameron said she was pleased with the performances at the championships and the qualifiers for the World Championships.

“We had raised the bar on qualifying and also made the swimmers do it in finals. The selectors had anticipated a smaller team of six to eight swimmers, so we have more than achieved that.

“I am delighted with the performances of our Olympians who have stepped up and in some cases gone faster than in Beijing. And it was encouraging to see some new faces who missed out last year but fought back to make the team this year.

“And there were a number of younger swimmers who have also stepped up this week and will be pushing for places in the team for the Commonwealth Games next year and beyond.”

North Shore’s Emily Thomas, formerly from Gisborne, won her first open title when she took out the women’s 100m backstroke. The 18-year-old finished within 3/10ths of a second off qualifying for the World Championships clocking 1:01.64 although the disappointment was with Olympic semifinalist Melissa Ingram (ITC – North Shore) who missed out on qualifying for Rome.

Earlier Southland teenager Natalie Wiegersma dominated the 400m individual medley, winning in 4:47.89 while the men’s race was a closer fought affair with West Auckland’s Brett Newall holding off fellow teenagers Mitchell Donaldson (North Shore) and Matthew Glassford (Neptune, Dunedin) winning in 4:27.02.

US-based Kane Radford (Aquatx, Rotorua) showed the benefit of his international experience to fight back to win the men’s 1500m freestyle in 15:38.46.

The 18-year-old, who is training at the prestigious Mission Viejo programme in California, led for most of the race until he was overtaken by Taranaki’s Dylan Dunlop-Barrett after 1100m.

Radford fought back to level with 50m remaining before pushing on to edge the Bell Block teenager by two seconds in a closely fought battle.

The New Zealand team for the FINA World Championships in Rome on July 19 to August 2 is:
Kurt Bassett (ITC – Laser Mt Eden) 200m backstroke; Daniel Bell (West Auckland Aquatics) 50m and 100m backstroke, 400m medley relay; Moss Burmester (ITC – North Shore) 100m and 200m butterfly, 400m freestyle; Cameron Gibson (United) 400m medley relay; Michael Jack (West Auckland Aquatics) 200m freestyle; Andrew McMillan (North Shore) 200m freestyle; Hayley Palmer (North Shore) 100m freestyle; Corney Swanepoel (ITC - North Shore) 50m and 100m butterfly, 400m medley relay; Glenn Snyders (ITC – North Shore) 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke, 400m medley relay.

Coaches: Jan Cameron (head coach, manager), Thomas Ansorg (ITC), Scott Talbot (North Shore). Sports scientist: Tom Vandenbrogaede.

10km Open Water Swim, 21 July: Alannah Jury (North Shore); Coach: Phillip Rush (SNZ Open Water Coach).