Swimming: North Shore lead charge to Barcelona

By TERRY MADDAFORD

New Zealand will have seven swimmers in Barcelona for July's world championships. With a bit of luck, it could have been 10.

All but one, Duncan Laing-trained Otago medley swimmer Liz Van Welie, are members of the powerful North Shore team.

With her continued good form on the final night of the championships, Van Welie will join the 4x200m freestyle relay team.

Alison Fitch (200m freestyle), Helen Norfolk (400m individual medley), Van Welie (400m individual medley), Hannah McLean (100m backstroke), Dean Kent (200m and 400m individual medley), Cameron Gibson (200m backstroke) and Corney Swanepoel (50m/100m butterfly) all qualified for the world championships.

Van Welie will be joined in the relay by Fitch, Norfolk and McLean who, along with Sarah Jackson, smashed the national record on the first night of the championships as Auckland stormed to victory.

In going under the world championships qualifying target, the quartet gave real hope that they will finish in the top 12 at the worlds, thus ensuring a place at next year's Athens Olympics.

The national championships at Wellington's Kilbirnie Aquatic Centre produced some good racing,and younger swimmers turned in promising efforts.

Although outside the world championships qualifying targets, 14-year-old Annabelle Carey from Christchurch's Wharenui Club won the three breaststroke titles, over 50m, 100m and 200m, to give hope of a resurgence in what has traditionally been New Zealand's weakest stroke.

Another 14-year-old, Verity Hicks (Howick Pakuranga), slashed 14s off the 12-year-old age group record over 1500m in finishing second to Australian Melissa Gorman.

Carey's clubmate, 17-year-old Arjun Haszard, completed the 800m/1500m freestyle double, two of 14 titles not won by North Shore swimmers, who collected 20.

Swanepoel continued his outstanding season with victories in the 50m and 100m butterfly, going under the times needed for Barcelona in both.

He was almost joined in the team by Otumoetai's Moss Burmester, who swam 1m 59.36s in winning the 200m butterfly in one of the last races at the championships.

Burmester went agonisingly close to the 1m 59.04s he needed for the trip.

Fitch was under the 200m qualifying time for the second time, but her winning 2m 02.07s was again outside Rebecca Perrott's 1978 record of 2m 00.60s.

Caroline Pickering halted Fitch's bid for a second individual title on the final night when she won the 50m freestyle in 25.90s, 0.06s outside the target time.

Gibson completed the 100m/200m backstroke double with his victory over the longer distance in a time of 2m 00.61s, comfortably under the 2m 02.17s target and close to Paul Kingsman's New Zealand record (2m 00.48s).

Gibson surged away from North Shore clubmate Scott Talbot-Cameron to win. In tiring in the last 50m, Talbot-Cameron could manage only 2m 05.38s.

He joined clubmate Melissa Ingram and Burmester as those perhaps unluckiest not to have made the grade in the cut-throat, must-qualify atmosphere the championships demanded.