Swimming: Swanepoel wins Oceania award

Corney Swanepoel

New Zealand's Corney Swanepoel confirmed his return to top form when he was named the male swimmer of the meet at the Oceania championships in Cairns last night.

Swanepoel won one of two gold medals for the New Zealand contingent on the final night of pool competition, with the 5km open water swim to end the championships today.

Swanepoel followed his outstanding win in the 100m butterfly with a strong effort to win the 50m butterfly in 24.33 seconds.

His efforts earned him the top prize at the meet, decided on a points system based on performances closest to the world best times.

New Zealand swimmers claimed 16 medals last night with the other victory going to Bryn Murphy, who set a personal best time of 15 minutes 43.17 seconds to win the 1500m freestyle.

Murphy led a New Zealand clean sweep in the race, with Daniel Ryan second and Shane Patience third.

New Zealand finished the pool competition with 43 medals including 10 gold medals, which pleased Swimming New Zealand's director of coaching Clive Rushton.

"There were some very good swims from some of our Commonwealth Games swimmers led by Corney Swanepoel and Liz Coster, in particular," Rushton said.

"Overall it was a profitable meet for us. We have some of our elite swimmers in good form, given they have trained through this meet.

"And several of the next group have put their hands up as they look towards the Panpacs and world youth championships to set them up for qualification for next year's world championships in Melbourne and then Beijing and beyond."

New Zealand medallists last night:-

200m breaststroke: Dean Kent (North Shore) 2min 19.65sec 2, Glenn Snyders 2:20.95 3.

200m freestyle: Lauren Boyle (West Auckland Aquatics) 2:01.92 3.

100m breaststroke: Sarah Vettoretti (West Auckland Aquatics) 1:12.88 3.

100m backstroke: Kurt Bassett (North Shore) 58.07 3.

200m individual medley: Dean Kent (North Shore) 2:06.18 2.

200m backstroke: Jessie Blundell (North Shore) 2:18.76 3.

50m butterfly: Corney Swanepoel (North Shore) 24.33 2, Matt Thomas (Primo Sundevils) 24.83 3.

50m freestyle: Liz Coster (North Shore) 26.63 2, Boyle 26.76 3.

1500m freestyle: Bryn Murphy (Waves) 15:43.17 1, Daniel Ryan (Waterhole) 16.00.10 2, Shane Patience (Raumati) 16:09.60 3.

4x100m medley relay women: New Zealand (Coster, Vettoretti, Megan Allan, Boyle) 4:18.07 2.

4x100m medley relay men: New Zealand (John Zulch, Snyders, Swanepoel, Robert Voss) 3:46.31 2.

- NZPA