Swimming: Swimmers in rush to book Games spots

Helen Norfolk retained her 400m individual medley crown easily, going under the Games mark with a winning 4m 47.30s. Picture / Dean Purcell

Eight individuals and a relay team booked early tickets to next year's Commonwealth Games on an all-action first day of the national championships/trials at the West Wave Aquatic Centre in Henderson yesterday.

In the women's 50m butterfly, three New Zealand swimmers posted qualifying times despite being overshadowed by Sweden's world 50m freestyle record-holder Therese Alshammar who recorded the fastest time in the semifinals.

She helped drag Liz Coster, Georgina Toomey and Nichola Chellingworth under the 27.73s target. Coster and Chellingworth beat the time in both their swims.

The much-anticipated men's 200m freestyle final was a disappointment.

Needing a time of 1m 49.87s for a Games spot and with a strong field headed by fastest qualifier Cameron Gibson to chase it, they should have done better.

Gibson led through the first 100m but his time (54.81s) was at least a second slower than needed. He was overtaken before the 150m turn by Andrew McMillan, who held off the fast-finishing Robert Voss to win as Gibson faded to third.

"That was a little disappointing," said McMillan, 20. "I'm normally a back end swimmer but I needed to go out faster."

McMillan hasn't got a second chance in the event as Otago does not have a 4x200m freestyle relay team and will now switch his attention to the 200m butterfly in which he went under the Games time earlier in the year.

Gibson too was disappointed.

"I didn't do anything I was supposed to do," he said. "I was supposed to go out hard and be a body-length clear at 100m but when I looked across they were all there."

Gibson returned to the pool a few minutes later to win his 100m backstroke semifinal but was again outside his target time.

His North Shore teammate Scott Talbot-Cameron made no mistake in taking the second semifinal, nailing the 56.32s qualifying time with a solid 56.09s effort.

"I'm reasonably happy with that," said Talbot-Cameron, 24, who was just .2s outside his personal best and within range of Gibson's New Zealand record of 55.39s. "I would have liked it to be a bit faster but it wasn't too bad considering I haven't had a lot of racing. I will be on it tomorrow [tonight] in the final. Cameron [Gibson] will be fresh for that so we will both be gunning it."

As an interesting aside, Talbot-Cameron will be keen to win and lay claim to the backstroke spot in the 4x100m medley relay team, especially if Gibson is overlooked for the freestyle leg.

Moss Burmester too found doubling up tough but he at least had the satisfaction of posting a qualifying time, twice going under the 100m butterfly target of 53.78s.

He swam 53.63s in the morning's heats and posted the fastest semifinal time of 53.77s while his North Shore teammate Corney Swanepoel will have to pull out all the stops in tonight's final after a 53.86s best from two swims yesterday.

Helen Norfolk easily retained her 400m individual medley crown beating New Zealand recordholder Liz Van Welie by more than 5s, going under the Games mark of 4m 51.67s with a winning 4m 47.30s.

Zoe Baker followed Norfolk's lead in twice going under her 50m breaststroke target.

She too was faster in the evening session clocking an all-the-way-win and a time of 31.44s, comfortably under the 32.03s target.

Dean Kent swam within himself to win the 400m individual medley by more than 10s, dipping under his qualifying time in the process.

In the last event, Auckland, without Norfolk, swam an impressive 8m 13.47s 4x200m freestyle relay to knock off their 8m 16.15s target.