Swimming: Steve Kent makes skins clean sweep

Training partners for the past two weeks, Steve Kent and Nathan Capp left any lingering 'mateship' on the starting blocks in the dash for $350 cash at swimming's Greerton Winter meet at Mt Maunganui's Baywave.
The pair, who have been training together at North Shore after most of Capp's squad at Swimming New Zealand's high performance centre disappeared overseas to prepare for the world championships in China, went head-to-head in the programme-ending skins medley at Baywave, where the meet's top 10 swimmers race over five 50m heats, with a minute's break between races.
The slowest two swimmers are eliminated in each heat with the last surviving swimmer taking a hard-earned $350 first prize.
Kent, 23, the brother of NZ Olympian Dean Kent, won every heat and held off former Greerton-based distance specialist Capp over the final 50m freestyle, clocking 23.64sec to Capp's 24.90.
In a much tighter female final, North Shore's Samantha Richter (26.76), a 50m specialist, squeezed out Auckland flatmate Laura Quilter (Comet) for the major money by 0.02sec - literally a fingernail.
Kent is familiar with the Mount having spent much of the summer competing as a surf athlete and drove down from Auckland on Sunday morning, winning the 200m individual medley and freestyle finals leading up to the skins.
"It's a bit of fun racing a format like this and way more interesting for the crowd. My backstroke's questionable so I'm glad I got that out of the way first when there was a few more guys on the starting blocks."
Kent said skins over 50m favoured a sprinter who still had an endurance base to call on. "You've got to be able to sprint but some form, especially in the last discipline because little mistakes can screw you over. By the end you're breathing more than you normally would in a 50m race."
Like Kent, 18-year-old Capp is building towards next month's national short course champs in Wellington and knew he'd be battling to hold off the medley specialist.
"Training with Steve he's much better over the shorter distances but I gave it a good shot and it's still pleasing to walk away with second (and $150)."
Capp has made huge strides under national high performance coach Mark Regan, with personal bests at nearly every competitive meet. "This weekend, even though the times weren't startling, everything felt real solid and where they should be heading towards spring and the short course champs."