Swimming: Hawke's Bay's Bobbi Gichard in Commonwealth Games team

Bobbi Gichard says selection for the Gold Coast is a stepping stone towards the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Photo/Photosport

Early Christmas presents don't come much better than the one Hawke's Bay swimmer Bobbi Gichard delivered to her parents yesterday.

"Mum and dad [Caroline and Dean] were really excited when I phoned them with the news," Gichard said.

She was referring to her selection in the New Zealand team for the April 4-15 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. Gichard, 18, will have the backstroke role in the Kiwis 4x100m medley relay team and depending on scheduling hopes to be able to tackle at least two of the three individual backstroke events which will be raced over 50m, 100m and 200m.

"While it's awesome to be selected for my first Commonwealth Games I see them as another step towards another of my aims ... the 2020 Tokyo Olympics," Gichard said.

Former Greendale swimmer Gichard, who represents Auckland's Howick Pakuranga club these days, recently returned from the Commonwealth Games trials on the Gold Coast. During the trials she recorded a time of 1m.01.62s for the 100m backstroke and 2m14.97s for the 200m.

"I was happy with those times considering how hard we were training beforehand," Gichard said.

While on the Gold Coast former Napier Girls' High School pupil and the 2015 Hawke's Bay Secondary Schools Sportsperson of the Year award winner Gichard and the rest of the Kiwi team checked out the swimming facilities which will be used for the Commonwealth Games.

"While we didn't swim at them it was good to see them," Gichard said.

Her Kiwi medley relay team was the third best of the Commonwealth teams at the July world championships in Budapest. She finished 23rd in the 200m backstroke in Budapest also.

Gichard, trained by former Great Britain and China Olympic coach David Lyles, was selected for Budapest after winning two golds and one silver medal at the April New Zealand Open Championships in Auckland.

The golds were won in her 100m and 200m finals and the silver in her 50m final. Budapest was Gichard's second taste of senior world championships and she also has two junior world championships on her CV.

Gichard, who recently finished her year 13 studies at Northcote College, won't have any major meets before the Commonwealth Games. Her long-time Greendale coach Noel Hardgrave-Booth, who retired last year, was thrilled to hear about Gichard's selection.

"It's well deserved. It was always going to happen ... it was just a matter of when.

"Bobbi has got the talent and will go a long way. I have no doubt she will tick off her Tokyo goal," he added.

Gichard is one of 12 able-bodied swimmers selected for the Gold Coast. They will be joined by five para swimmers and two divers.

The Kiwis will be aiming to bounce back from a disappointing Rio Olympics where no Kiwis made an A final. Olympians Corey Main and Bradlee Ashby lead the medal prospects after shining in Budapest.

Ashby broke his own 200m individual medley national record and Main set two personal bests as he made the final of the 100m backstroke.

Kiwi Para Swimming star Sophie Pascoe will attempt to retain the 100m breaststroke and 200m individual medley relay titles she won in Glasgow in 2014. Fellow Paralympians Jesse Reynolds and Tupou Neiufi along with Celyn Edwards and Chris Arbuthnott will complete the Kiwis' para swimming contingent.

The full Kiwi aquatics team is:
Swimming: Chris Arbuthnott, Bradlee Ashby, Carina Doyle, Celyn Edwards, Gabrielle Fa'amausili, Helena Gasson, Bobbi Gichard, Daniel Hunter, Corey Main, Georgia Marris, Tupou Neiufi, Sophie Pascoe, Samuel Perry, Jesse Reynolds, Bronagh Ryan, Matthew Stanley, Laticia-Leigh Transom.
Diving: Liam Stone, Elizabeth Cui.