Swimming: Kiwi breaks PanPac drought

Emily Thomas broke a New Zealand medal drought stretching back for than a decade when she won a bronze medal in the 50m backstroke at the Pan Pacific swimming championships in California today.

It is New Zealand's first medal at the championships since Trent Bray won a bronze at Fukuoka, Japan, in 1997.

The event, rated behind only the Olympics and world championships, features the swimming powerhouses of Australia and the United States as well as Japan and Canada among other nations.

Thomas, who turns 20 on Sunday, finished in a tie for third place with two others, with half a second covering the field in a race won by Australian triple Commonwealth Games champion Sophie Edington.

Thomas, of Gisborne, clocked a time of 28.44 seconds, a fingertip off her own national record.

"I was trying to go in to get a PB and hopefully medal but in the end I did not have to do a PB to get one," Thomas said.

"The 50 is my favourite so I just wanted to go out and have fun.

"I was happy with my start but I would have liked to have kept my stroke rate up at the end but it dropped a little bit although it was pretty good.

"It is a really good confidence boost for the Commonwealth Games so I am excited for that now. I definitely believe I can be a real threat at New Delhi."

New Zealand enjoyed a good finals session, with Southland's Natalie Wiegersma fifth in the A final of the 400m individual medley while the women's 4x200m freestyle team set a new national record when going under the eight minute mark for the first time to also finish fifth.

As well, Daniel Bell was third in the B final of the 50m backstroke in 25.52sec while Gareth Kean, a long distance specialist, was sixth in a personal best 25.94sec.

Hayley Palmer was eighth in the A final of the 100m freestyle in a solid 56.04sec while Glenn Snyders produced an excellent performance close to his best with a 1min 00.74sec effort to finish second in the B final of the 100m breaststroke.

Wiegersma, 19, challenged the leaders through her powerful butterfly and backstroke disciplines and turned in third place at the 200m mark. She fell back slightly on the breaststroke and held off any challenges for her fifth placing in 4min 41.93sec, close to her best.

American Elizabeth Beisel won in 4min 34.69sec ahead of Australia's Samantha Hamill, with Wiegersma ranked second best of the Commonwealth swimmers at the meet, a boost for her upcoming chances in New Delhi.

The women's 4x200m relay team took more than 2sec off the national record set by the team on the way to a bronze medal at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

Lauren Boyle, Tash Hind, Amaka Gessler and Melissa Ingram clocked 7min 59.80sec for fifth place behind the United States, Australia and Canada, which sets up an intriguing battle ahead at the Commonwealth Games.

- NZPA