Coster, Ingram makes it four for Beijing

Training mates Melissa Ingram and Liz Coster booked themselves seats to Beijing on the second night of heats in the Absolute Insurance Olympic Trials in Waitakere City.

 

The North Shore pair both made it through in the heats of the 100m backstroke to bring the total of swimmers qualified for Beijing to four after the second day at the West Wave Aquatic Centre.

 

The long night of heats finished with a flurry with a New Zealand record to Glenn Snyders (North Shore) in the 50m breaststroke.

 

Ingram and Coster qualified in vastly different fashion however. Ingram, the 200m specialist, who won a silver medal in last year’s World University Games, impressed with a personal best 1:01.30, which was 4/10ths of a second inside the FINA A time for Beijing and more than a second inside her previous best.

 

Coster had to cope with some last minute stress with the zip on her new racing suit broke just minutes before the race. With 20 minutes usually required to fit the suits, Coster set her own world record in changing to make it to the start line moments before her race.

 

She won her heat in 1:01.34, just 4/100ths of a second slower than Ingram, to cement her spot in the Olympics.

 

“It was definitely some stress that I did not need,” Coster said. “It usually takes 20 minutes to get into the suits. I really panicked but we got there and got the job done.

 

“I guess it shows though that you can swim fast times without the new suits. I’ve definitely worked really hard for this. Fast times are more about how hard we have worked than anything else.” Ingram said she was delighted to qualify and see Coster through too.

 

“I think I probably surprised a few people who thought I was only a 200m swimmer. It is my main event but I was quite confident in my training that I could do well tonight.

 

“It takes the pressure off the rest of the meet now to know we are going to Beijing. Now we can relax a bit and just swim fast. I am so stoked.”

 

Snyders, who qualified for the Olympics in the 100m breaststroke, pushed confidently to a new national record in the 50m breaststroke. He went under the 28 second barrier for the first time, clocking 27.98s to beat Paul Kent’s 1995 mark of 28.23s.

 

In other swims Andrew McMillan (North Shore) produced a personal best of 1:49.53 to be only 8/10ths of a second off qualifying in the 200m freestyle.

 

Annabelle Carey (Aquagym) topped qualifiers in the 100m breaststroke in 1:10.37, which was a second outside her national record and 1.2s off the FINA A time, with fellow Cantabrian Zoe Baker a further second back.

 

West Auckland’s Daniel Bell took the high ground as the top qualifier ahead of Kurt Bassett (Laser Mt Eden) and John Zulch (North Shore) in the 100m backstroke, with the fastest in tonight’s heats or tomorrow’s final will secure the place in the men’s medley relay.

 

Bell’s club mate Lauren Boyle, back from her scholarship at the University of California Berkley, topped qualifiers for the 400m freestyle in 4:16.19 ahead of Helen Norfolk.

 

Dunedin’s Bryn Murphy (Waves) was the fastest in heats of the 1500m in 15:44.14, which was five seconds clear of Rotorua’s Kane Radford.

 

UK-based Te Rina Taite was the top qualifier in the women’s 50m butterfly in a personal best 28.07s, only 6/100ths of a second outside the national record. She edged North Shore’s Hayley Palmer who was second fastest in 28.20s.

 

Corney Swanepoel (North Shore), shaping up for an Olympic tilt in the 100m butterfly, was fastest in the heats of the 50m in 24.10s, half a second outside his national record.

 

Tomorrow morning’s finals feature the women’s 100m backstroke, men’s 200m freestyle, women’s 100m breaststroke, men’s 100m backstroke, women’s 400m freestyle, women’s 50m butterfly and men’s 50m breaststroke.