State Insurance New Zealand Swimming Championships – Day 5 Wrap

 North Shore swimmer Glenn Snyders showed he is back to top form when he qualified in his second event for the Commonwealth Games at the State Insurance New Zealand Championship in Waitakere City tonight.

Snyders took out the 50m breaststroke in 28.07, which was more than 3/10ths inside the qualifying mark following his earlier qualifying time in the 100m breaststroke, on the final night of the championships at the West Wave Aquatics Centre.

He was joined by US-based Lauren Boyle who produced an aggressive display to set a personal best of 4:11.55 to win the 400m freestyle, which was 4/10ths under the qualifying mark. This gave her a second qualifying performance after going under the time for New Delhi in the 200m freestyle earlier in the meet.

Seven swimmers went under the qualifying mark for the Commonwealth Games in 11 swims this week.

Snyders was thwarted for much of last year with a knee injury that required surgery but showed he is now approaching his best again.

“That felt quite good. I was really happy with that swim,” Snyders said. “I will look at it later but I came to get that second qualifying time.

“I will have a break now but my aim is to medal in New Delhi. That’s the big goal. I know I have a lot of hard work to do but this is a good starting point.”

Boyle, who has just completed her scholarship at Cal State Berkley, controlled her race perfectly with even 31-mid laps to go through the 300m on target at 3:07.65. After a 32.11 penultimate lap, Boyle pushed hard to edge home just under the qualifying time to be more than three seconds under her previous best.

“That was so hard. I don’t want to ever say that I had a perfect swim but that really went to plan for me,” Boyle said. “It was a big personal best for me and I am really thrilled to get a second qualifying swim.

“I’ll be putting in a lot of work from now. I want to get faster in both events and produce my best in New Delhi.”

Boyle’s coach Teri McKeever, who came to New Zealand to guide her Cal State Berkley star, was impressed with her swim.

“We’ve been working on getting more aggressive and she did that tonight,” said McKeever, the first female to be head coach of the US swim team. “We still have some work to do over that final 100m but I am pleased with her progress.”

Earlier North Shore’s Andrew McMillan repeated last year’s narrow victory over rival Michael Jack (West Auckland Aquatics) in the 200m freestyle. They pushed each other under the world championship qualifying time last year but this year were just outside the qualifying mark for New Delhi, with McMillan winning in 1:50.91.

In other swims Corney Swanepoel took out the men’s 50m butterfly in 24.37, but outside the tough target time, while the Bell Block club in Taranaki celebrated with double success when Charlotte Webby won the 200m butterfly and Dylan Dunlop-Barrett won the men’s 1500m freestyle.

The New Zealand team for the Commonwealth Games will be named by the NZOC tomorrow at 11am at the West Wave Aquatics Centre, Waitakere City.

Qualifying performances:

Daniel Bell (North Shore) 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke; Lauren Boyle (North Shore) 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle; Moss Burmester (North Shore) 200m butterfly; Melissa Ingram (North Shore) 200m backstroke; Hayley Palmer (North Shore) 100m freestyle; Glenn Snyders (North Shore) 50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke; Natalie Wiegersma (Waverley, Southland) 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley.

Results, day 4 finals:

Men 200m freestyle: Andrew McMillan (North Shore) 1:50.91, 1; Michael Jack (West Auckland) 1:51.17, 2; Matthew Stanley (North Shore) 1:52.72, 3.

Women 200m butterfly: Charlotte Webby (Bell Block) 2:13.94, 1; Samantha Lee (Capital) 2:15.70, 2; Elizabeth Brown (Ashburton) 2:16.42, 3.

Men 50m Breaststroke: Glenn Snyders (North Shore) 28.07, 1 (Commonwealth Games qualifying time); Nic Ferrif (North Shore) 28.79, 2; Jeffrey Arona-Tuifana’e (Howick Pakuranga) 29.59, 3.

Women 400m freestyle: Lauren Boyle (North Shore) 4:11.55, 1 (Commonwealth Games qualifying time); Melissa Ingram (North Shore) 4:15.82, 2; Tash Hind (Capital) 4:16.87, 3.

Men 50m butterfly: Corney Swanepoel (North Shore) 24.37, 1; William Benson (Roskill) 24.43, 2; Matt Thomas (North Shore) 24.63, 3.

Men 1500m freestyle: Dylan Dunlop-Barrett (Bell Block) 15:42.10, 1; Kane Radford (Rotorua) 15:51.70, 2; Sam Robinson (North Shore) 16:01.09, 3.

Full details: www.swimmingnz.org.nz