Swimming: Snyders back on top in pool

North Shore swimmer Glenn Snyders showed he is back to top form when he qualified in his second event for the Commonwealth Games at the New Zealand Championship last night.

Snyders took out the 50m breaststroke in 28.07s, which was more than 3/10ths inside the qualifying mark following his earlier qualifying time in the 100m breaststroke, on the final night of the championships at the West Wave Aquatics Centre in Waitakere.

He was joined by US-based Lauren Boyle, who produced an aggressive display to set a personal best of 4m 11.55s to win the 400m freestyle, which was 4/10ths under the qualifying mark.

This gave her a second qualifying performance after going under the time for New Delhi in the 200m freestyle earlier in the meet.

Seven swimmers went under the qualifying mark for the Commonwealth Games in 11 swims this week.

Snyders was thwarted for much of last year with a knee injury that required surgery but showed he is now approaching his best again.

"That felt quite good. I was really happy with that swim," Snyders said. "I will look at it later but I came to get that second qualifying time.

"I will have a break now but my aim is to medal in New Delhi. That's the big goal. I know I have a lot of hard work to do but this is a good starting point."

Boyle, who has just completed her scholarship at Cal State Berkeley, controlled her race perfectly with even 31-mid laps to go through the 300m on target at 3m 07.65s. After a 32.11s penultimate lap, Boyle pushed hard to edge home just under the qualifying time to be more than three seconds under her previous best.

"That was so hard. I don't want to ever say that I had a perfect swim but that really went to plan for me," Boyle said. "It was a big personal best for me and I am really thrilled to get a second qualifying swim.

"I'll be putting in a lot of work from now. I want to get faster in both events and produce my best in New Delhi."

Boyle's coach Teri McKeever, who came to New Zealand to guide her Cal State Berkeley star, was impressed with her swim.

"We've been working on getting more aggressive and she did that tonight," said McKeever, the first female to be head coach of the US swim team.

"We still have some work to do over that final 100m but I am pleased with her progress."

Earlier North Shore's Andrew McMillan repeated last year's narrow victory over rival Michael Jack (West Auckland Aquatics) in the 200m freestyle.

They pushed each other under the world championship qualifying time last year but this year were just outside the qualifying mark for New Delhi, with McMillan winning in 1m 50.91s.

In other swims Corney Swanepoel took out the men's 50m butterfly in 24.37s, but outside the tough target time, while the Bell Block club in Taranaki celebrated with double success when Charlotte Webby won the 200m butterfly and Dylan Dunlop-Barrett won the men's 1500m freestyle.

The New Zealand team for the Commonwealth Games will be named by the NZOC today.