Swimming: Late bloomer breaks four-year-old record

Ashburton's Karen Tait provided the highlight on the third night of finals at the New Zealand age-group swimming championships in Wellington last night.

Tait, 17, broke the New Zealand age group record for the 200m freestyle, clocking 2m 4.66s.

That was 0.05s better than the previous record set four years ago by 1996 Olympian Alison Fitch.

The other major highlight was another two gold medals to Sydney Olympian Jonathan Duncan, of Otago.

Tait, coached by Roly Creighton in Ashburton, is considered a late bloomer in the sport, and will now come under the guidance of renowned coach Duncan Laing with a move to Otago University.

"She really proved herself tonight. It was a top swim," national coach Brett Naylor said.

"Karen has come on the scene in her mid-teens and is an excellent prospect for the future. She is the type of swimmer we are looking for to take us into international competition."

Duncan lifted his gold medal haul at the meet to five.

He produced a strong performance to win the 400m individual medley in 4m 31.71s before returning to the pool to upset Levin's James Pallesen and win the 100m freestyle in 53.01s.

"Jon is not a medley swimmer, but is showing good form and good fitness here. He is swimming the other strokes for experience," Naylor said.

There were some excellent performances, with Christchurch's Elliott Box following Duncan's lead with wins in the 13 years 400m medley and 100m freestyle.

His clubmate, Ben Pickersgill-Brown, clocked an impressive 55.11s to win the 14 years 100m freestyle and West Auckland's Mark Herring recorded 53.10s to win the 16 years division.

Canterbury's Alesha Wojtas won the 14 years 200m freestyle in 2min 8.80s to add to her personal best 1m 0.10s when winning the 100m on Wednesday night.

- NZPA