Swimming: Palmer tastes more success at nationals

North Shore swimmer Hayley Palmer enjoyed a busy and successful second night of finals at the New Zealand short course championships in Christchurch last night.

Palmer, 20, won three titles in an exhausting night, including a New Zealand record at the QEII Leisure Centre.

The world championship semifinalist took out the women's 50m butterfly, 100m individual medley and 100m freestyle honours.

She had to withstand storming finishes from fellow-New Zealand team member Tash Hind, who almost ran her down in both the medley and 100m freestyle.

"I don't normally do a programme this heavy. To come out with three titles, two of which were by the skin of my teeth, is pretty good. I am very happy," Palmer said.

"I am full work through this meet without any taper at all. To be honest, I'm absolutely knackered.

"But to really be world class you need to be able to get up and perform whenever it is required. I've started to build up towards the Commonwealth Games and of course London, so this will have its benefits."

Palmer proved too strong in the 50m butterfly, winning in 26.94 from Wellington's Samantha Lee, who set a national age group record in the process.

The North Shore swimmer, 11th in the world in the 100m freestyle, then took out the 100m individual medley, holding off a strong finish from Hind.

Palmer won in one minute 01.24 seconds to knock nearly half a second off the previous New Zealand record held by Hind, who also went under her old mark.

Corney Swanepoel, based at the North Shore's International Training Centre, was emphatic in winning the 50m butterfly in 22.84sec, just 0.2sec outside his national record.

He pipped Auckland's Tim Dawson, the winner of the 100m butterfly on the first night, and Olympic finalist Ryan Pini of Queensland.

Swanepoel returned to finish second in the 100m freestyle, edged out in the final few metres by world championship teammate Michael Jack of West Auckland.

It proved a top race with Jack storming home to win ahead of Swanepoel and 200m freestyle winner Andrew McMillan, with just 3/10ths of a second separating the trio.

Auckland's Kurt Bassett impressed in winning the 200m backstroke in 1min 53.64sec, just 5/100ths of a second outside the national record, after running down early leader Daniel Bell in the final 30m.

In other finals Queensland's Daniel Leston took out the 400m individual medley, Dunedin's Phoebe Williams (Waves) won the 800m freestyle and Katie Kenneally (Neptune, Dunedin) in the 200m breaststroke, breaking a national age group record in the process.

- NZPA