State Insurance New Zealand Swimming Championships – Day 1 Heats

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Moss Burmester produced a strong performance in the opening morning of heats in the State Insurance New Zealand Championship in Waitakere City this morning.

Burmester, from the High Performance Centre at Millennium, topped the qualifiers to be less than two seconds outside the qualifying time for the Commonwealth Games.

The championships double as the official Commonwealth Games Trials where qualifying times for New Delhi must be set in the evening finals only.

Burmester clocked 1:59.73, the only swimmer under the two minute barrier in the morning heats at West Wave Aquatic Centre.

Melbourne Commonwealth Games medallist Lauren Boyle returned from the USA to top qualifiers in the women’s 200m freestyle.

Boyle has just completed a highly successful meet at the NCAA Championships for the University of California in her final year of her swimming scholarship at Berkley. She clocked 2:00.20 to head off Tash Hind, from the high performance centre, Penny Marshall and her fellow North Shore clubmate and national record holder Melissa Ingram.

Boyle was only 3/10ths outside the qualifying time for the Commonwealth Games.

Natalie Wiegersma, hoping to become the first Southland swimmer in 20 years to qualify for the Commonwealth Games, was fastest in heats of the women’s 200m individual medley in 2:16.82, a solid heats swim just two seconds outside the qualifying mark.

In other events Olympians Hayley Palmer and Daniel Bell, both North Shore, were fastest in heats of the 50, butterfly and 50m backstroke respectively, while Rotorua’s Kane Radford topped the men’s 400m freestyle and Christchurch’s Zoe Baker was best in the 50m breaststroke heats.

In the only title decided this morning, open water star Alannah Jury (North Shore) won the women’s 1500m freestyle from Taranaki’s Charlotte Webby (Bell Block).

The finals start at 6pm tonight with the championships continuing until Friday. There is a special Skins and Charity event on Saturday featuring the current champions along with many of the greats from the past including Anthony Mosse, Paul Kingsman and Anna Simcic.

Full details: www.swimmingnz.org.nz