Big weekend for top trio

Swimming

Three Wairarapa swimmers have qualified to contest the State New Zealand Open Swimming Championships.

The competition will be held at the West Wave Aquatic Centre in Henderson on Sunday and will run for five days until Friday.

Carterton duo Bella Biggs and Joe Hammond and Ben Ruback of Masterton will be part of a meet which doubles as the official trial for the 2013 Fina world championships to be staged in Barcelona from July 19-August 4.

Hammond has easily the busiest schedule of the Wairarapa trio. He will participate in the 400m freestyle, 800m freestyle, 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley, 100m backstroke, 50m backstroke and 200m backstroke.

Biggs, at just 13, is a qualifier for the 400m individual medley and Ruback for the 1500m freestyle.

There are more than 1000 entries for championships, including 25m world champion Lauren Boyle and fellow London Olympians Matt Stanley, Glenn Snyders, Melissa Ingram, Dylan Dunlop-Barrett, Tash Hind, Gareth Kean and Samantha Lucie-Smith. There are record entries from AWD swimmers, including London Paralympic gold medallists Sophie Pascoe, Mary Fisher and Cameron Leslie.

Heats are from 10am each day and finals from 6.30pm.

To qualify for the world championships, swimmers will need to equal or better the Fina A standard.

Meanwhile, qualification for the junior world championships is equalling or bettering the Fina B standard.