Swimming: Varsity team win third Kiwi silver

Te Rina Taite. Picture / Chris Skelton

The swim team ensured the World University Games would be the most successful by any New Zealand team after claiming their third medal in Turkey yesterday.

The women's 4x200m freestyle relay team took the silver medal behind the United States in a thrilling finish on the third night of finals near Izmir.

This followed silver medals by the 4x100m freestyle relay team on the first day and Helen Norfolk in the 200m individual medley.

The previous best by any New Zealand team was two medals to swimmer Anthony Mosse 20 years ago.

Yesterday's silver medal was sealed by North Shore newcomer Te Rina Taite, who produced a stunning final 50m to hold off the French after being caught at the 150m mark in the final leg.

Taite, 21, formerly from Palmerston North, let a 2.3s buffer disappear over the first 150m to French anchor Elsa N'Guessan, but dug deep to hold second.

Head coach Thomas Ansorg earlier moved the key swimmer and team captain, Alison Fitch, from her normal second spot to third to hopefully give Taite a cushion.

He instructed Taite to push hard for the first 50m, then conserve energy in the middle part of the race before kicking home in the final 50.

"We planned for it and it worked perfectly," Ansorg said.

"It's one thing to plan it but another to carry it off. It was a hard strategy not to panic when you are caught in a relay, but Te Rina carried it out so well.

"It was her fastest 200m ever by some margin.

"Alison Fitch was magnificent. She had the third-fastest split in the race and gave Te Rina the opportunity. And Helen [Norfolk] and Melissa [Ingram] produced strong swims. I was thrilled with the result."

The New Zealand quartet clocked 8m 09.09s to finish three seconds behind the Americans and 0.4s ahead of France.

Their time was only a second outside the New Zealand record set in the final at the recent Montreal world championships.

"This is so much different to Montreal," said Ansorg. "The conditions are tough. Today it was 46C in the marshalling area, and it was also extremely windy."

The women's relay team were the only New Zealand finalists on the third night of finals, having qualified fourth in the morning heat in 8m 17.20s.

Aucklander Sarah Vettoretti produced the best of the morning heats, finishing one spot out from the B final of the 200m breaststroke in her first big international meet.

She swam a personal best 2m 39.74s to be 0.8s off a qualifying spot.

Ten New Zealanders are in the pool in today's fourth day of competition, led by Norfolk, ranked third in the 400m individual medley, and North Shore clubmate Moss Burmester, ranked fifth in the 100m butterfly.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand women's soccer team lost their final pool match 3-0 to Ireland, to miss qualifying for the quarter-finals.

Wellington tennis player Warwick Foy was bundled out in the second round of the singles by a Colombian opponent.

- NZPA