Daniel Bell hoisted the New Zealand flag at the world junior swimming championships in Monterrey, Mexico, for a fourth time when he won the 50-metres butterfly final yesterday.
It was Bell's third gold medal of the championships, having earlier won the 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly finals. His
bid for a fourth podium finish failed when he missed the cut for the 100m freestyle final.
New Zealand's other gold medal was won by Orinoco Faamausili-Banse in the 50m freestyle on Saturday. Faamausili-Banse withdrew from the 100m freestyle competition after falling ill yesterday.
Bell was second fastest in the heats of the 100m freestyle in a personal best 50.62s in the morning but a 50.99s in the semifinals was not enough to see him through to today's final.
"We gave him the chance to withdraw at night [from the semifinals] to concentrate on the 50m butterfly finals but he was having nothing of it," coach Donna Bouzaid said. "He felt he could win them both which is typical of his fantastic attitude."
Twenty minutes after the 100m freestyle semifinals, the West Auckland swimmer was back in the pool to bag his third gold medal in the 50m butterfly. Bell clocked 23.61s to rewrite the championship record. It also set a national open record, previously held by Corney Swanepoel.
Wellington's John Gatfield also performed strongly yesterday, with personal best performances in the 50m breaststroke and the 400m individual medley.
- NZPA
