Swimmers nail Games slots 

Liz Van Welie competing at the NZ Summer Championships in Auckland. Jeff Brass / Getty Images

Cameron Gibson's mother yesterday talked him out of cutting his fingernails.

Last night at the New Zealand Championships at the West Wave Aquatic Centre that proved inspired advice as Gibson, by the barest of margins, nailed a Commonwealth Games qualifying time.

Trailing Kurt Bassett after 50m, Gibson surged to the front by 100m and went on to take the 200m backstroke title in 2m 01.65s - 0.10s under the time he needed.

Gibson dug deep in the last 50m to hold off Bassett and John Zulch and, more importantly, get the time he needed.

"It made up for last night's disappointment," said Gibson, 23, referring to his 100m backstroke swim in which he failed by one one-hundredth of a second to join his North Shore clubmate Scott Talbot-Cameron in booking an early Games' ticket.

"It was a big last 50m for sure. I try and tell myself it is a 150m race, go hard to that point and hold on. I was probably a bit slow through the first 50m but came home well."

His coach Jan Cameron, while elated her charge had shaken the monkey off his back, admitted she was not too confident when he touched and turned with 50m to swim.

Any doubts?

"A very big one," she said with a laugh.

Joy turned back to despair a few minutes later when Corney Swanepoel again failed to make the grade. He swam well enough to hold off Moss Burmester to win the 50m butterfly title but a quick look at the time on the big scoreboard confirmed his worst fears - his 24.30s, while quicker then his morning heat swim, was still outside the 24.21s he was chasing.

"It's frustrating," said Swanepoel who a year ago appeared to have the pool at his feet. "It was not exactly what I wanted for sure. It is frustrating in many ways.

"My training was going very well until I got sick a week ago. I know I can do the times but I'm running out of opportunities."

He feels the added pressure of not being able to reproduce times he swam apparently with ease in the past.

"It happens to everybody," said Swanepoel. "But it is frustrating."

And tonight's final? "I'll damn well be giving it everything." And that, hopefully, should bring its reward.

Annabelle Carey should be similarly rewarded in the 200m breaststroke final after getting within half a second of her target in last night's semifinals.

In front all the way, the Christchurch swimmer touched in 1m 10.58s to break the New Zealand record of 1m 11.05s she set at July's World Championships.

She will be looking for 1m 10.05s in the first final on tonight's programme.

Dean Kent underlined his class as probably the best swimmer at these championships adding the 200m individual medley crown to the 400m title he won on the first night.

Trailing Australian Nicholas Cordner after the opening butterfly leg, Kent soon surged to the front and swam away to win as he liked.

His winning 2m 02.52s was just over a second outside his own New Zealand record but was more than a second under the Games' qualifier of 2m 03.74s.

In other third night events, Auckland's Lauren Boyle was less than a second outside her 400m freestyle target, her winning 4m 17.10s just over the 4m 16.21s.

She had already qualified in the 100m and is a likely member of the 4x200m freestyle relay team as will Melissa Ingram who won the 200m backstroke last night but was almost 2s outside the target.

Alison Fitch, another who had turned in a Games' qualifier earlier in the meet, won the 100m freestyle in 56.73s from Helen Norfolk and Nichola Chellingworth (both had already qualified in other events) but was outside the 56.56s target.

Thirteen individual swimmers and three relay teams have now reached the Game's standards.

The championships end tomorrow night.