Swimming: Baker finishes 5th after race in Spain

Former world record holder Zoe Baker was the best of the New Zealand swimmers in the final round of the Mare Nostrum series in Barcelona today.

Baker again finished runner-up to Australia's Leisel Jones in the final of the 50m breaststroke in 31.75sec, another impressive performance from the Jasi club (Christchurch) swimmer.

She led all qualifiers with a slick 31.62sec, although she could not quite top that in the final.

Baker said she was encouraged by her consistently strong performances during the competition after she had just completed a high mileage build-up.

"Zoe has just come off a big build-up, especially for her as a sprinter, as well as a heavy weights programme, and was not expecting too much from this competition," Swimming New Zealand director of coaching Clive Rushton said.

"So her performances, which have been consistently close to her New Zealand record, have been excellent.

"She has not done any significant mileage for some years, as is the way with most 50m sprinters, but she is extending herself as she looks to move up to the 100m this year."

Baker finished fifth overall in the three-round series in Monaco, Canet and Barcelona, involving six days of competition over nine days and earned a healthy slice of the prizemoney at stake.

Commonwealth Games medallist Hannah McLean picked up two fourth placings in the finals of the 50m and 100m backstroke in another busy schedule.

She clocked 29.24sec in the final of the 50m after topping the qualifiers in 29.40sec.

McLean clocked 1min 02.32sec for her fourth in the 100m final after she qualified third. Both finals were won by Australian Tayliah Zimmer, who had to endure a swim-off just to make the 100m final.

McLean's North Shore clubmate Helen Norfolk was sixth in the finals of both the 200m and 400m individual medley, clocking 2min 20.16sec and 4min 54.10sec respectively in the finals. She went faster in both events in qualifying.

McLean, who finished 31st in the series, is now training in Europe, while Norfolk is training at the Great Britain swim centre at Loughborough, England.

Australians dominated the overall series with Jones finishing top, ahead of Lisbeth Lenton and Zimmer who took home the lion's share of the $45,000 prizemoney on offer.

- NZPA