Melissa Ingram. Photo / Martin Sykes
Melissa Ingram took out the women's 200m backstroke at the New Zealand Championships last night and dragged brilliant 15-year-old Cantabrian Sophia Batchelor through to qualify for July's World Championships in Shanghai.
Ingram, 25, the most experienced swimmer in the country, saved her best until last with a well-measured race to
clock 2m 10.38s, more than 2s under the qualifying time.
"That's very encouraging. The 200m back is always at the end of the meet so I am used to coping with that. I think my friends and family were more stressed," said Ingram, who is coached by Scott Talbot.
"My 100m back was still solid; I'm trying to cope with swimming faster in the shorter races. The 200m is my race. It's a pace that's second nature to me and I was happy to get under the time, get on the team and now prepare well and work hard for Shanghai."
There was plenty of excitement when Batchelor, coached by Leeane Speechley, clung on to the heels of Ingram with a superbly judged effort to clock a personal best 2m 11.72s and book her spot in the Shanghai team.
Batchelor said she was lost for words with the qualifying swim on the back of a difficult build-up after the Christchurch earthquake which caused extensive damage to her family home and forced the closure of her club pool and QEII.
"I was really, really nervous before the race," Batchelor said. "I put my headphones on and tried to relax because that's how I swim best.
"It was hard with no long course pool to train in and then to lose our own pool and so I came here with no expectations.
"I can't believe I've just qualified for the world championships."
Taranaki's Dylan Dunlop-Barrett completed an impressive cleansweep of the distance freestyle events, adding the 1500m title to the 400m and 800m won earlier in the week.
There were some close battles at the other end of the spectrum. Carl O'Donnell (HPC North Shore) added the 50m freestyle to the 100m title. He won in 23.22s from Cameron Simpson (Templeton) and defending champion Orinoco Faamausili Banse (Laser Mt Eden) with 3/100th of a second separating them.
