Swimming: Young swimmers set records

The future of New Zealand swimming seems bright with 28 records set in the five-day national age group short course championships which finished in Wellington yesterday.

Six records were broken on the final night in Wellington, with the performance of 15-year-old Christchurch swimmer Sophia Batchelor a real feature.

Batchelor established two further new national age group records tonight to bring her tally to 12 for the meet. She broke the 50m freestyle record, clocking 25.62sec and then took more than a second off the record for the 200m individual medley in 2min 14.77sec.

Batchelor's effort in the medley earned her a classy 844 FINA points, her fifth swim of the championships over the 800 mark, regarded as world class.

Howick Pakuranga's Bayley Main set two records for 13-year-olds on the final night, 25.64sec in the 50m freestyle and 25.20sec in the 50m freestyle.

Older brother Corey nailed a superb 56.34sec effort in the 100m butterfly, bettering a 23-year-old John Steel mark.

North Shore's Chloe Francis saved her best until last to clock 2min 13.33sec to set a new national record in the 17 years 200m individual medley.

- NZPA