Swimming: More gold for New Zealand in Melbourne

North Shore swimmers Dean Kent and Helen Norfolk bagged a notable double in the final session of the Fina World Cup meet in Melbourne last night.

They dominated the individual medley to win both the 200m and 400m events at the three-day meet.

Their performances ended an excellent meet for New Zealand swimmers, who won six medals, including four golds, all to them to coach Jan Cameron's North Shore squad.

In all, they also set five New Zealand records.

Kent equalled his own national record in yesterday's heats before going on to dominate the 400m medley final, winning by more than two seconds.

He clocked a time of four minutes 4.66 seconds to top his morning heat, equalling his New Zealand record set last year.

Kent went out aggressively to topple the mark in the final, turning through the butterfly and backstroke legs in sub-2min but paid the price for his brave efforts when winning in 4min 10.03sec.

Norfolk, who won the 400m medley on friday, took out the 200m final in emphatic fashion.

After a considered opening leg, she hit the lead at the 100m in 1min 2.39sec and dominated from that point.

Norfolk won in 2min 13.25sec, close to her national record set last year.

Earlier, North Shore's Corney Swanepoel, 18, twice broke Danyon Loader's 11-year-old national mark for the 100m butterfly.

He pipped Loader's 1993 record of 52.78sec by half a second in the morning heats and lowered that to 51.67sec in the final.

Swanepoel finished third in a slick race won by two-time world champion James Hickman, of Britain.

In other New Zealand performances ast night Alison Fitch was fifth in the 200m freestyle final, Tom MacDonald eighth in the 400m medley, Hannah McLean eighth in the 50m backstroke, Scott Talbot-Cameron seventh in the 100m backstroke and Daniel Ryan eighth in the 1500m freestyle.

- NZPA