Ingram continues hot form in Singapore World Cup

Melissa Ingram continued her hot form on the FINA World Cup circuit in Singapore today.

The 23-year-old Beijing Olympian has picked up a further win and a second placing on the first night of finals in the fourth round of the World Cup.

She repeated her win in the 200m backstroke from Sydney last weekend after earlier finishing second in the 200m freestyle.

Southland’s Wiegersma sisters were also on the podium with 20-year-old Natalie finishing second in the final of the 200m individual medley and older sister Joyce third in the 800m freestyle.

Ingram, from the Swimming New Zealand High Performance squad at Millennium Institute, enjoyed another strong tussle with South Africa’s Melissa Corfe who led through the first half of the 200m backstroke final. The kiwi took over by the 150m mark and powered home to win in 2:05.63. Australian world record-holder of 50m backstroke, Sophie Edington finished third.

Ingram had earlier produced a strong performance to finish second in the 200m freestyle, edged out by just 24/100th of a second to Australian Kelly Stubbins in 1:56.64, fractionally outside her new national record set in the South African meet last month. It is her third straight swim under the old New Zealand record.

Both swims gave her a healthy FINA points score as she chases overall honours on the World Cup circuit.

Natalie Wiegersma finished third behind inform Australian Katheryn Meaklim and Russia’s Svetlana Karpeeva in the final of the 200m individual medley in a useful 2:13.13, just outside her best set in Sydney last weekend.

Earlier her older sister Joyce finished third in the 800m freestyle behind Corfe and Meaklim in 8:45.16.

Other strong performances from the New Zealanders included Charlotte Webby (Bell Block) who was fourth in the 800m freestyle, Brett Newall (West Auckland), fourth in the 200m butterfly and Matt Woodrow (SwimZone Wellington) who was fourth in the 400m freestyle final in 3:50.63 won by Olympic 1500m gold medalist Oussama Mellouli.

Results, FINA World Cup, Singapore, NZ performances day 1 finals:

Female:
800m freestyle: Melissa Corfe (South Africa) 8:35.75, 1; Katheryn Meakum (RSA) 8:44.22, 2; Joyce Wiegersma (Southland) 8:45.16, 3; Charlotte Webby (Bell Block) 8:47.31, 4.
200m freestyle: Kelly Stubbins (AUS) 1:56.38, 1; Melissa Ingram (SNZ HP) 1:56.64, 2; Kara Joyce (USA) 1:58.32, 3. Also N Wiegersma 2:03.16, 7; J Wiegersma 2:07.45, 8.
100m butterfly: Webby 1:03.10, 6.
100m breaststroke: Anneke Jenkins (West Auckland) 1:12.00, 6.
200m individual medley: Meakum 2:10.59, 1; Svetlana Karpeeva (RUS) 2:12.43, 2; N Wiegersma 2:13.13, 3; Jenkins 2:23.21, 6.
200m backstroke: Ingram 2:05.63, 1; Corfe 2:06.34, 2; Sophie Edington (AUS) 2:08.83, 3.

Male:
100m freestyle: Mark Herring (West Auckland) 49.88, 7; Steven Kent (SwimZone, Wellington) 50.29, 8.
100m backstroke: John Gatfield (SwimZone Wgtn) 53.52, 7
200m butterfly: Brett Newall (West Auckland) 1:58.85, 4; Kent 1:59.16, 5.
400m freestyle: Matt Woodrow (SwimZone) 3:50.63, 4; Kane Radford (Rotorua) 3:52.15, 5; Dylan Dunlop-Barrett (Bell Block) 3:57.22, 7.
100m individual medley: Daniel Bell (West Auckland) 54.63, 5; Newall 57.72, 8.
50m butterfly: Bell 24.20, 8.