Swimming: Fitch retains her record-book form

Alison Fitch celebrated a return to her home pool with a New Zealand record on the third night of the New Zealand winter championships in Hamilton last night.

Fitch, who moved to the North Shore from Hamilton last year, took more than half a second off her own short course 100m freestyle record with her time of 54.65s.

She has retained the outstanding form she showed at last month's Panpac Championships in Japan.

Fitch headed a good night for New Zealand swimmers, who won all seven finals.

Fitch's North Shore clubmates Dean Kent and Hannah McLean continued their standout form with winning swims.

McLean followed her earlier 100m backstroke victory by beating clubmate and defending champion Melissa Ingram in the final of the 200m backstroke in 2m 09.11s.

Kent produced another excellent solo performance in the 200m individual medley, narrowly missing the New Zealand record he set at the world short-course championships in Moscow in April.

He finished five seconds clear of second-placed Michael Higgins (New South Wales) in 1m 58.35s, and was just one-tenth of a second outside his record.

North Shore's Diane Bui-Duyet was also well under her national record in winning the 50m butterfly in 27.14s.

The old mark stood at 27.70s.

Canterbury's Helen Norfolk was another making a return to top form, winning the women's 400m freestyle emphatically in an impressive 4:14.54, six seconds clear of second placed Rebecca Linton (Howick Pakuranga), who won last night's 800m freestyle.

National record holder Brad Herring (West Auckland Aquatics) edged out his younger brother Mark to win the men's 50m freestyle, displaying encouraging form in a comeback to the sport.

The final title went to Wellington's Robert Voss, who beat Australian Andrew Burns to win the men's 400m freestyle.

National coaching director Clive Rushton was thrilled with the New Zealand showing.

"It was great to see Kiwis winning all seven finals tonight, and to see our top swimmers continuing to impress and improve," he said.

"Alison Fitch is continuing with this great spell of form from the Pan Pacs and tonight's record was a world-class swim.

"If she can improve her start I believe she is capable of reaching the top eight in the world for this event.

"I was also delighted for Helen Norfolk, who is another to really bounce back to her best, and, like Dean, produced the goods in a virtual time trial."

The championships finish tomorrow.