Snyders breaks record in opening heat of NZ Swim Championships

Olympic semifinalist Glenn Snyders set the pool alight with a national record on the first morning of the New Zealand Open Swim Championships in Christchurch today.

The 21-year-old from the International Training Centre at Millennium Institute went under his own New Zealand record to top qualifiers in the 100m breaststroke at the QE II Leisure Centre.

Snyders showed no effects of a recent troublesome knee injury to clock 1:00.17, taking 3/10ths of a second off his own record set in last year’s Olympic Trials.

The championships double as the official trials for July’s world championships in Rome and swimmers must go over the FINA 900 point mark in the finals to qualify.

Snyders’ time was well over that mark although he will need to do it in tonight’s final to secure a world championship berth.

“That was great. And it was a bit surprising,” Snyders said. “I wanted to go under 1:01 but was surprised how fast it was. That’s the fastest that I have ever come home and I still think there’s some more in the tank for tonight.”

Eighteen year old Daniel Bell also went over the 900 mark when he topped qualifiers for the 100m butterfly ahead of fellow Beijing Olympians Moss Burmester and Corney Swanepoel.

Bell clocked a superb 52.70, which was nearly 2/10ths of a second under the time, although it must be achieved in the final tonight where only two swimmers can qualify for the world championships.

Swanepoel and Burmester also won their respective heats in 52.99 and 53.56 respectively to set up a mouth-watering battle tonight.

In other key swims Southland’s Natalie Wiegersma was fastest in heats of the 100m butterfly, Katie Kenneally (Neptune, Otago) best in the 100m breaststroke while Bell returned to clock the fastest time in the 50m backstroke with North Shore’s Emily Thomas fastest in the women’s 50m backstroke in a new New Zealand Age Group Record time of 29.85.

The finals start at 6pm tonight and the championships run until Sunday.