Swimming: Ingram finds the speed to qualify for Games

North Shore's Melissa Ingram exorcised her demons to qualify for the Commonwealth Games at the New Zealand championships last night.

Ingram, the Beijing Olympian who missed out on the world championships last year, won the women's 200m backstroke under the qualifying time at the Waitakere City West Wave Aquatics Centre in the Commonwealth Games trials.

There were three swimmers under the qualifying mark on the penultimate night of finals with Ingram joined by fellow North Shore swimmer Daniel Bell and Southland's Natalie Wiegersma, who both qualified in their second event for New Delhi.

This brought the total to nine qualifying performances from seven swimmers with one day remaining.

Ingram went through the halfway point of the 200m backstroke in 1m 03.88s before two 33s laps helped her clock 2m 10.73s, nearly a second inside the qualifying mark.

"I definitely felt a few demons walking along the pool to the blocks tonight. It was maybe not quite as fast on the back half than I would have liked but it is definitely my fastest swim in a fabric suit. It's a bit like starting again now to race without the suits. And most importantly I got the qualifying time. I am absolutely thrilled to get that out of the way."

She finished well clear of North Shore clubmates Penelope Marshall and Jessie Blundell.

She set the tone for the night with Daniel Bell recording his second qualifying performance in winning the 100m backstroke in 54.40s, half a second under the qualifying time. He will also be able to swim the 50m backstroke in New Delhi.

"I would have liked to have gone half a second faster but it was still a pleasing performance," Bell said.

Bell finished clear of the Wellington pair of Gareth Kean (Capital) and John Gatfield (SwimZone).

Wiegersma rounded off a brilliant championship with her second qualifying time in the 400m individual medley. She won in 4m 41.15s, nearly two seconds under the qualifying mark.

She showed plenty of strength to power home in 31.40s for the final 50m freestyle to win by 15s from Grace Francis (North Shore).

"We came here to get both qualifying times. My coach targeted the 400m individual medley and said that was where there is an opening at Commonwealth Games level," Wiegersma said.

In other finals Steven Kent (United) won the 200m individual medley and Orinocco Faamausili-Banse (Laser Mt Eden) won the 50m freestyle.

The champs conclude today with key events including the men's 200m freestyle and women's 400m freestyle.