Prior stars at swim champs

Masterton swimmer William Prior was a standout performer for Swimming New Zealand's 16yrs and under development team at the trans-Tasman tri series held in short course pools over six days in three Australian venues, Melbourne, Wagga Wagga and Canberra.
He was an integral part of a team which featured prominently amongst the medals and significantly closed the gap of past years as far as team were scores were concerned.
Being voted "Swimmer of the Meet" for the New Zealand team in Melbourne was a highlight for Prior and he also starred at Wagga Wagga , where he was placed second in both the 200m freestyle and 200m butterfly, third in the 400m individual medley and fifth in the 400m freestyle.
Prior's 200m freestyle time there of 1min 53.64secs was a personal best, and broke the Wairarapa record he had established two days before when placed third in Melbourne (1min 55.32secs) and was within 1secs of the New Zealand 16yrs men's record held by Canterbury's Ben Pickersgill-Brown.
Prior swam this race very strongly, taking command very early in the race and only been overtaken in the very last stroke by a bigger-and older-opponent
The 200m butterfly event came only five races later and here Prior also set a new personal best time and Wairarapa record of 2mins 6.53secs. and the New Zealand team claimed both the second and third placings.
Prior's third in the 400m individual medley at Wagga Wagga followed on from his third placing in the same event at the first venue in Melbourne, each race producing significant personal best times.
In Melbourne Prior reduced his time by 3secs (4min 39.23secs) and delighted everyone with his decisive third placing, as previous to this, he held a relatively minor ranking for the event at trans-Tasman level.
Remarkably, he also broke Shaun Gard'ner's Wairarapa record by 18.22secs and then two days later at Wagga Wagga Prior reduced this time by a further 2 1/2secs (4mins 36.71secs), cementing his top three ranking.
By the third venue of Canberra Prior was suffering the effects of a heavy programme and had to be content with fourth placings in the 200m butterfly and minor placings in his other three events.
The two Australian teams involved in the series carried more swimmers than did New Zealand and their swimmers were able to target their specific events and therefore had a workload considerably less than that of the likes of Prior.
As well as the individual events Prior also swam in relays at each session and after starting in the B" team had worked his way into the "A" line-up by the second venue. Indeed he produced the second best relay split of any New Zealander in the Canberra four by 100m freestyle relay with a very creditable 53.14secs.
Prior spent a few days back in Masterton last week before departing with two other leading Wairarapa swimmers Ashley McDougall and Tim Smith to attend Donna Bouzaid's "Winter Wake-Up" camp_ in Rotorua. He will then go on to Auckland to prepare for the Japan Olympic Cup tour in August.