Absolute Insurance Short Course Swim Championships – Day 1 heats

Seven swimmers went under the qualifying times for the World Championships on the opening night of the Absolute Insurance Short Course Championships at Waitakere City tonight.

North Shore swimmers Robert Voss, Andrew McMillan and Glenn Snyders along with UK-based Cameron Gibson earned places on the New Zealand team for the world championships to be held in Manchester next April.

Their team-mates Moss Burmester, Dean Kent and Melissa Ingram also went under the qualifying times in the first night of heats at the West Wave Aquatic Centre although they had already qualified on last month’s FINA World Cup circuit.

Gibson and Kent also established New Zealand records in an impressive opening night at Waitakere, while Ingram missed out on a national record when the electronic starting equipment did not activate properly. However the manual back-up time was under the world championship qualifying mark.

The opening night impressed national coach Jan Cameron.

“This is what we have to do if we are to succeed on the international stage,” Jan Cameron said. “We are setting the bar higher and really challenging our swimmers.

“We also want them to go out and attack in the heats and then go faster in the final.

“So I am thrilled with the start. They were all very aggressive and very focussed. It’s a tremendous start to the meet.”

Gibson, back from his base at Bath University, set a New Zealand record 48.17s in the heats of the 100m freestyle. This was more than 3/10ths of a second inside his previous best which was the old national record the recent British University Championships. That time was just one FINA point outside the world championship qualifying time but he earned 917 points to qualify him for Manchester.

Kent stopped the watches at 55.21 to top qualifiers in the heats of the 100m individual medley which was 1/100th of a second inside the mark for the world championships. The veteran has already qualified for the championships and now has achieved world championship times in the 100m, 200m and 400m individual medley.

Ingram, who broke two national records at the Sydney World Cup, showed her class with a superb swim to top qualifiers in the200m backstroke. The manual time of 2:06.01 was inside the Manchester time and under Hannah McLean’s national record set at last year’s world championships. But as a manual time it cannot be ratified although she will have a further chance in tomorrow’s final.

Voss took more than three seconds off his previous best, clocking3:46.75 in the heats of the 400m freestyle. This was 3/10ths of a second inside the qualifying mark for the world championships.

McMillan, who moved to North Shore from Otago last year, qualified in the 200m butterfly. He clocked a personal best 1:55.40 which was more than a second inside the qualifying time for Manchester. He went quicker than 2006 world short course silver medallist Burmester, who cruised through in 1:56.19, also under the qualifying mark.

This sets up a tremendous battle in tomorrow morning’s final.

Snyders looked very smooth in clocking 27.55 in his heat of the 50m breaststroke, which was 11/100ths inside the world championship qualifying mark and only 2/10ths off the national record.

The championships is running under the same format to be used at next year’s Beijing Olympics, with the heats in the evening and finals each morning.