"The support from the crowd was just awesome … I had a plan with my coach to not taper for this event, so it was a fine balance to being able to get the time and be ready for Pan Pacs in a few weeks," Robinson said.
"I still want to hit that time hard, the 1500m at Pan Pacs is a timed final so if I want to get into that final I'm going to have to do a good swim on Friday."
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games representative Celyn Edwards was the leading Para swimmer of the opening night, winning two gold medals in the men's 50m breaststroke and 400m freestyle Para mixed multi-class events.
Earlier in the evening 18-year-old, Zac Reid showed his class in the men's 400m freestyle A final to set a qualification time of 3:51.10s for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.
Reid took an early lead over Lewis Clareburt and the rest of the field at the halfway mark before the Taranaki swimmer gunned for the finish with purpose as the crowd gave a rapturous applause.
Michael Pickett was in record-breaking form breaking his own 15 years 50m butterfly national age-group record in the morning heats.
Pickett also broke his own 15 years national age-group record in the 100m freestyle as lead off swimmer for North Shore Swimming Club's men's 4x100m freestyle relay team.
Howick Pakuranga's Tyron Henry also broke his own 16 years national age group record in the same race, dipping under 51 seconds with a time of 50.91s.
Both freestyle times were under the selection requirement for Junior Pan Pacific and Youth Olympic Games with final selection subject to approval.
Other athletes to also achieve selection times for Junior Pan Pacific were Thomas Watkins, Quinton Hurley, Erika Fairweather, and Gina Galloway.
