Swimming: Palmer is toast of team at Pan Pac champs

Hayley Palmer was sixth in the A final. Photo / Natalie Slade

Sprinter Hayley Palmer broke her national record to lodge New Zealand's highlight on the final day of pool competition at the Pan Pacific swimming championships in California yesterday.

Palmer, 20, from Swimming NZ's High Performance squad, was sixth in the A final of the 50m freestyle at the Irvine pool. She clocked 25.35s to be 1/100th of a second inside the record she set at the Commonwealth Games trials this year.

"I was real happy with that. I knew I had a little bit more speed than at the trials. It has taken a few days to get into it here but I was really happy with that tonight," Palmer said. "I had a good start and good finish. A personal best and a new record are great. You can't really ask more than that."

The North Shore Club swimmer, 11th in the world in the 100m freestyle last year, was fourth fastest among the Commonwealth Games swimmers to set up a real battle next month in New Delhi.

"This was a performance meet and we have taken it very seriously. But the big focus is the Commonwealth Games and this is a stepping point towards that. We will go back now and get in a really solid three to four weeks of training with the aim to be bigger and better in Delhi," she said.

"The sprints in the Commonwealth Games are going to be really close and a huge battle. I am looking forward to it."

She was joined in the A finals by Southland's 's Natalie Wiegersma, who finished seventh in the final of the 200m individual medley following her fifth place in the 400m medley to cap off an excellent meet.

Wiegersma, 20, went faster than her heat with a 2m 14.36s, although outside the national record she set at the Games trials.

The former world youth champion in backstroke was fifth fastest among Commonwealth Games swimmers.

She and 18-year-old Gareth Kean emerged as the major movers from the New Zealand team.

Wiegersma is now moved into the world's top 20 in the 200m and 400m individual medley.

The men's medley relay team completed the pool competition for New Zealand, finishing sixth in their final in a solid 3m 38.69s, won by the US after a superb butterfly leg by Michael Phelps to edge out Japan.

Earlier Penny Marshall, Amaka Gessler, backstroker Emily Thomas and Carl O'Donnell all set personal bests in heats of the 50m freestyle. Snyders decided to bypass his B final of the 200 breaststroke to save himself for the men's medley relay.

The New Zealand programme finishes today with Cara Baker competing in the 10km open water swim.

- NZPA