It was a happy homecoming for US-based Lauren Boyle at the New Zealand swimming championships in Auckland last night.
The 23-year-old returned from her base in California not expecting much after a heavy academic schedule as she works on her business degree at the University of California, Berkeley.
Boyle grabbedher second qualifying time for July's world championships - winning the 200m freestyle at the West Wave Aquatics Centre to add to her 400m freestyle mark.
She clocked a strong one minute, 58.74 seconds in last night's 200m freestyle, 4/10ths outside the national record but more than half a second inside the qualifying mark.
More importantly she dragged her Delhi Commonwealth Games medal-winning teammates of Tash Hind, Amaka Gessler and Penny Marshall through to a combined time under the qualifying mark for the 4x200m relay combination.
"It's fantastic. I wasn't expecting it at all," Boyle said. "So it makes me feel so much better about where I am and I feel like I have something more to build on looking ahead for the next year than I might have otherwise."
The other highlight was a superb solo performance from Queensland-based Dylan Dunlop-Barrett (Aquabladz Taranaki) who beat the 20-year-old national record of Danyon Loader in winning the 800m freestyle.
Dunlop-Barrett, now based under the leading Australian coach Denis Cotterell, clocked 8min 03.09sec, a personal best by 17 seconds, to beat Loader's long-standing mark by more than two seconds.
Earlier Glenn Snyders easily accounted for challengers to win the 50m breaststroke in a handy 28.11sec, half a second off his national record.
Snyders, coached by Mark Regan, will chase his third title in the 200m breaststroke tomorrow.
