Swimming: Wiegersma battles with Olympic great

Natalie Wiegersma. Photo / Getty Images

Southland swimmer Natalie Wiegersma grabbed her second medal after a brilliant duel on the final night of the New South Wales championships in Sydney last night.

The 21-year-old Wiegersma (Waverley) had to be content with second placing in an exciting battle with three-time Olympic gold medallist Stephanie Rice at the Sydney Aquatic Centre at Olympic Park.

After beating glamour girl Rice in the 400m individual medley on the first day, Wiegersma edged the Australia for all but the last five metres of their 200m medley battle last night.

The young New Zealander was fractionally ahead after the butterfly and extended that to 0.7s after the backstroke. Rice, who won both medley gold medals in Beijing, used all her experience to close the margin to half a second after the breaststroke and produced a 30.86sec final 50m for the freestyle, edging Wiegersma with the final touch in two minutes 12.79 seconds. Wiegersma was second in 2min 12.89sec, only 0.7sec outside the New Zealand record she set at the Commonwealth Games.

The other medal went to Wellington's Gareth Kean with a bronze in the 100m backstroke won by Ashley Delaney in 54.38 seconds with Kean third in 55.91sec. North Shore's Daniel Bell missed qualifying but won the B final in 55.68sec, fast enough for a silver in the A final.

Ten other New Zealand swimmers qualified for A finals last night led by Glenn Snyders (North Shore) fourth in the 200m breaststroke and Tash Hind (Wellington), fifth in the 100m freestyle final.

The swimmers return to prepare for next month's world championship trials in Auckland.

New Zealand results, day 3 finals:

Women 200m individual medley: Stephanie Rice (AUS) 2:12.79 1, Natalie Wiegersma (Waverley) 2:12.89 2, Julia Wilkinson (CAN) 2:15.75 3.

Men 100m backstroke: Ashley Delaney (AUS) 54.38 1, Hayden Stoeckel (AUS) 55.71 2, Gareth Kean 55.91 3.

Other New Zealand A final finishers:
200m butterfly: Charlotte Webby (Bell Block) 2:14.77 7.
100m butterfly: Corney Swanepoel (Roskill) 55.15 7.
200m breaststroke: Glenn Snyders (North Shore HPC) 2:17.48 4.
200m freestyle: Tash Hind (Capital HPC) 2:00.36 5, Amaka Gessler (Aquagym HPC) 2:01.07 7, Penny Marshall (North Shore HPC) 2:03.11 9.
50m freestyle: Carl O'Donnell (North Shore) 23.64 9.
400m individual medley: Nathan Capp (Greerton) 4:32.28 6.
50m backstroke: Melissa Ingram (North Shore HPC) 30.26 10.
1500m freestyle: Kane Radford (Rotorua) 15:50.54 7.

- NZPA