Canterbury's Georgina Toomey was the toast of the New Zealand lifesaving team after winning the silver medal in the 50m manikin carry at the world lifesaving championships in Livorno, Italy, today.
Toomey, 18, was less than one second behind Italian Elena Prelle, who recorded a world record time of 35.69 secondsin the pool event.
She was one of a handful of New Zealand medallists, along with Dean Kent, who won a bronze in the 200m obstacle race before teaming with fellow Olympians Moss Burmester and Steve Ferguson and Glenn Anderson for another bronze in the 4x50m obstacle relay.
"Dean was just under 0.2 of a second from the silver medal, which was also an outstanding performance," New Zealand manager Jim Warwick said.
The first day of pool competition produced four new world records, with the strongest performance coming in the men's 4x50m obstacle relay.
"Our team came third and like the two in front of them, bettered the previous world record," Warwick said.
Selected leading results from pool events at the world surf lifesaving championships at Livorno, Italy, today:-
Men
A finals
200m obstacle race: Blaine Morgan (US) 56.97sec 1, Lutz Heimann (Germany) 59.36 2, DEAN KENT (NZ) 59.55 3.
100m manikin tow with fins: Lutz Heimann (Germany) 54.35 1, Jeremy Betz (France) 57.02 2, Federico De Marco (Italy) 57.63 3. Also: BURMESTER (NZ) 1min 00.64sec 7.
Women
A finals
50m manikin carry: Elena Prelle (Italy) 35.69 1, GEORGINA TOOMEY (NZ) 36.48 2, Jennifer Parry (Australia) 37.55 3.
100m manikin tow with fins: Isabella Cerquozzi (Italy) 1:02.19 1, Monique Driessen (Netherlands) 1:04.31 2, Kristy Munroe (Australia) 1:04.95 3. Also: JOHANNA O'CONNOR (NZ) 1:10.82 6.
