Aquatics: van Welie wins silver in 400m medley

MANCHESTER - New Zealand's Commonwealth Games swimmers saved their best to last with Dunedin student Liz van Welie winning silver in the 400m individual medley today, the last final for a Kiwi.

The medal was won on a night when the star of the Manchester Games, Australia's Ian Thorpe, collected his sixth gold to go with one silver, and follows the bronze medal won by 33 year-old New Zealander Toni Jeffs in the women's 50m freestyle sprint yesterday.

Van Welie's event is one of the toughest in swimming and her silver was all the more remarkable because she qualified for the final of her specialist event, the 200m butterfly, which she swam just half an hour earlier.

She swam a scorching medley time of 4 minutes 47.82 seconds in the heats to qualify second fastest, knocking nearly two seconds off her previous best time. In the final, she swam an even hotter time of 4min 44.56sec, nearly five seconds faster than she had ever swum.

She led the race after the first butterfly leg but slipped behind Australia's Jennifer Reilly in the backstroke. At one point of the backstroke she slipped to third although ended the second length still in second and by the breaststroke leg the race was down to Reilly and van Welie.

After the end of the first length of the freestyle, van Welie had pegged back Reilly's earlier 0.95sec lead to just 0.31sec, just head and shoulders behind. But she couldn't reel her in in the final length as Reilly stepped up the pace and the Australian took the gold in 4min 43.59sec by three quarters of a body length, 0.97 of a second.

Van Welie, 22, said she wasn't thinking about winning, "just going for it".

"I don't think about medals, I was just going for a time. I'd never imagined I could do that time. I was stoked."

She entered the medley only on a last minute decision and had mulled pulling out of the event.

She never considered pulling out of the 200m butterfly despite qualifying so well in the medley as the former is her main event.

"I was really disappointed how I went in that because I came here to do it. The 200 fly was always my priority."

She said the timing of the two races did not bother her as she trained for that eventuality.

Reilly, who had a difficult week when she was disqualified in the 200m medley and a day later reinstated to second said the disqualification had given her something to think about.

"I knew the New Zealand girl would be up there, but I just had to go for it and push on," she said.

Van Welie was clocked at 2min 13.14sec in the 200m final, which was well outside her best time of 2min 11.62sec. Australia's Petria Thomas won the event in 2min 8.40sec.

She was perplexed about why she could not match or better her best time in the butterfly.

New Zealand's haul of one silver and a bronze medal marginally beats the 1998 Kuala Lumpur result of two bronzes. Jeffs' bronze was a repeat of the KL effort and while the men's team came third in the 4x200m freestyle relay, two individual medals are probably more valuable.

Thorpe was given a standing ovation by the Manchester Aquatic Centre crowd and the large Australian contingent cheered him and his teammates on for minutes.

Thorpe said it had been a fantastic Games, not just for Australia but for all teams.

"It's been a successful Games for me personally, as well as everyone else."

Only five of the 42 swimming golds were not won by Australia or England. England was the big improver in these Games with 10 golds and 32 medals in all. However, no one could deny Australia's superiority with 27 golds, 13 silvers and 8 bronzes.

- NZPA

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