KEY POINTS:
Two national records were set on the first night of finals at the national summer swimming championships in Christchurch.
West Auckland's Daniel Bell, the world youth champion, broke the men's 100m individual medley record and North Shore's Hayley Palmer finished second to Australian Marieke Guehrer but set a
new mark in the 100m freestyle.
There were classy performances from Olympians Melissa Ingram in winning the women's 200m backstroke and Glenn Snyders in the 50m breaststroke.
World record-holder Guehrer also showed her class in winning the 50m butterfly.
Bell took over the mantle from swimming legend Dean Kent, pipping the veteran in his final swim to claim the 100m medley in 54.20 seconds, 3/10ths inside Kent's national mark.
Kent, an 11-time winner of the title, finished second in his final event at national level, deciding a few weeks ago to prepare for the meet.
"I'm coming in here on some pretty hard work and I've been close to that record a couple of times," Bell said.
"It was a bit unfortunate to get on Dean's final meet. He told me he was happy I got it and he is one of those guys who loves seeing young guys come through and taking his records and he is always offering to help."
Palmer got an excellent drag behind Guehrer in the 100m freestyle, coming through in second place behind the world record-holder in 54.35sec, 1/100th inside her own record.
"I was expecting faster and I have been feeling like I probably should have gone faster.
"But at the end of the day... it's faster than any other New Zealand woman has gone before. So taking that into account I really can't complain about it," Palmer said.
Ingram, back from her outstanding run of success including three national records in the Fina World Cup series, was all class in winning the 200m backstroke in two minutes 05.03 seconds, just outside her New Zealand mark.
But it earned her 997 Fina points, the best swim on world terms for the night.
Fellow Olympian Snyders was in impressive form, just 2/100ths outside his record in winning the 50m breaststroke in 27.33sec from Blair Jacobs (Napier Aquahawks) and Chad Konik (North Shore).
Moss Burmester showed his experience to out-distance clubmate Andrew McMillan and win the 200m butterfly in a handy 1min 55.80sec with Shaun Burnett making it a North Shore trifecta.
Fifteen year old Chloe Francis (North Shore) claimed two New Zealand Open titles in her first national short course championships, setting New Zealand age group records on the way to winning the 100m breaststroke and 800m freestyle.
- NZPA
