Melissa Ingram. Photo / Kenny Rodger
New Zealand swimmer Melissa Ingram won gold on the opening night of finals at the World Cup meet in Beijing, breaking her own national record in the process.
The 26-year-old yesterday took out the women's 200m backstroke in an exciting final, holding off China's Yanxin Zhou by just 1/100th of
a second after the hometown swimmer was roared on by a local crowd.
Ingram, coached by Scott Talbot, topped qualifiers comfortably and took nearly a one second lead at the halfway mark in the final. The Chinese swimmer closed to 0.3s at the 150m mark but the New Zealander showed her experience to hold on for the victory by the narrowest of margins.
Her winning time of 2min 3s took virtually a second off her previous New Zealand record set at the World Cup in Singapore last year, achieved off the back of her peak form at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Earlier, Ingram qualified seventh fastest in the heats of the 200m freestyle but withdrew from that final to concentrate on the 200m backstroke final.
