Swimming: Record not good enough for NZ women

Lauren Boyle. Photo / Getty Images

The New Zealand women's 4x200m freestyle relay team set another national record at the world swimming championships in Shanghai overnight but finished 10 seconds off the pace set by the winning American quartet in the final.

The New Zealand four of Lauren Boyle, Penny Marshall, Amaka Gessler and Tash Hind, who won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games last year in India when setting a fresh national mark, bettered that time with a mark of seven minutes 57.15 seconds in qualifying this week for the Shanghai final.

They finished eighth and last in the final with a time of 7min 56.55sec. The United States won in 7min 46.14sec, ahead of Australia and China.

As well, New Zealand's Glenn Snyder missed out on making the final of the men's 220m breaststroke, finishing with 10th best time of the 16 semifinalists. Only the fastest eight qualified for the final.

New Zealand coach Mark Regan found much to admire in the work of the relay team.

"I am happy with them. They all made mistakes but there's a whole different pressure being in a final,'' he said.

"Learning how to handle this pressure is part of this development. Some have handled it better than others but what we have to do is make it better and better for them.

"The more they put themselves up to this level then the better they will be at handling the pressures and learning how to step up again. The relay did that tonight and I am very pleased with them.''

Earlier, Gareth Kean could not repeat his outstanding performances from the 100m to miss qualification for the 200m backstroke semifinals.

He was off the pace to finish at 2min 00.74sec to be 24th fastest and more than 3sec outside his best time.

New Zealand results:-

Final, women's 4x200m freestyle relay: United States 7:46.14 1, Australia 7:47.42 2, China 7:47.66 3. Also New Zealand (Lauren Boyle, Amaka Gessler, Penny Marshall, Tash Hind) 7:56.55 9 (NZ record).

Semifinal qualifiers, 200m breaststroke: Kosuke Kitajima (Japan) 2:08.81 1, Daniel Gyurta (Hungary) 2:08.92 2, Christian Von Lehn (Germany) 2:09.44 3. Also: Glenn Snyders (NZ) 2:11.68 10.

Women's 100m freestyle heats: Tash Hind 55.72 28.

Men's 200m backstroke heats: Gareth Kean 2:00.74 24.

Men's 200m breaststroke: Snyders 2:12.38 10.

Women's 4x200m freestyle relay: US 7:50.46 1, Canada 7:52.05 2, Hungary 7:52.12 3. Also: New Zealand 7:57.15 8.

- NZPA