Swimming: Capp gives it all but remains shy of Glasgow

Greerton swimmers Danielle Waiari (left), Nathan Capp and Claudia Capp, celebrate their success at the NZ Swimming Championships. Photo/Supplied

Greerton swimmer Nathan Capp finished the 2014 NZ Swimming Championships held in Auckland with mixed emotions.

The event doubled as the Glasgow Commonwealth Games trial and Capp hoped to put his name on the list. The standards set were very high, requiring swimmers to swim a time equivalent to eighth best in the Commonwealth.

Capp's best chance was in Friday night's 1500m freestyle.

Not wanted to be left wondering and lacking any competition, Capp went out hard and hit the required splits right up to the 1000m mark where he turned in 10:11.83. However the final 500m proved to be too challenging as Capp dropped off the punishing pace to finish in 15:25.25 - just three seconds outside his own New Zealand mark but well short of the 15:15.10 required for Glasgow. The consolation prize was a national title achieved with a 23 second winning margin over his nearest competitor.

Earlier in the week Capp won the 400m individual medley in an equally dominant fashion.

After initially giving away a body length to Hamilton's Bradlee Ashby over the initial butterfly leg, a strong backstroke pulled him level and a sub 1:15 breaststroke split saw Capp move away for a comfortable victory. His time of 4:21.54 was a new personal best and Bay of Plenty record but five seconds shy of a ticket to Scotland.

On the opening night Capp set another BOP record touching third in the 400m freestyle behind Matamata's Matthew Stanley. His time of 3:54.10 removed Rotorua's Kane Radford's name from the record books.

Capp remains hopeful of selection for New Zealand teams in either the upcoming Oceania Championships or the world class Pan Pacific meet where his times met B standards.

Meanwhile, his sister Claudia Capp and Danielle Waiari both competed in their first Open Championships. Claudia was successful in reaching the B final of the 50 Freestyle where she broke a BOP age group record swimming 27.66 seconds. Waiari swam a personal best 28.45 in the 50m freestyle while her best result was a 24th in the 50m backstroke.