Hunter and Mincham Qualify for the World Short Course Championships

2016 NEW ZEALAND SHORT COURSE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sir Owen G Glenn National Aquatic Centre, Auckland
• October 2nd-6th, 2016
• Prelims – 9 am local (4 pm EST (the previous day)
• Finals – 6 pm local (1 am EST)
• Meet Schedule
• Results
• World Short Course Championships Qualifying Criteria

After the first four days of competition at the 2016 New Zealand Short Course National Championships Daniel Hunter was the only Kiwi to qualify for the 2016 World Short Course Championships in December, which will be held in Windsor, Canada. That all changed when 20 year old Michael Mincham won the final event of the competition, the men’s 1500 freestyle, posting a time well under the qualifying time for Windsor.

On Thursday evening Hunter won his third event of the competition taking the men’s 100 freestyle in a time of 47.52 finishing well ahead of Julian Weir who collected the silver in a time of 48.18. He was also under his own national record of 47.61.

“It was a tough one tonight, getting to the end of a long week. I had to push the first 50 and I knew the second 50 was going to hurt,” Hunter said.

“It’s been a pretty amazing week and obviously I am stoked with the results. It has set me up really well for this next block of training and I couldn’t be happier.”

Hunter had an extremely strong championships collecting gold in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle qualifying for the World Championships in all three events and setting new national marks in both the 50 and 100 freestyle.

“I am excited about the world championships. I am going to target the 50m and 100m freestyle there and see what I can put out on a full taper.”

Hunter’s plan heading into the World Championships is to first compete in the World Cup stops in Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong before joining Corey Main and his bother Bayley Hunter at the University of Florida for a few weeks of training.

Mincham took the men’s 1500 freestyle in a time of 14:55.94 finishing over 26 seconds ahead of the field. He bettered his lifetime best of 15:02.72 and was well under the World Championships qualifying time of 15:08.23, “I built in to it and it was a really good swim and I am so happy with that,” said Mincham.

“I have worked so hard and put in so many hours and it has all come together in the end which is really cool.

“The world championships will be my first as a senior and the experience is going to be really good. I am lost for words really.”

Main will also be on the World Championships team after meeting the qualification criteria of finishing in the top 16 at the Rio Olympics where he placed 15th in the 100 backstroke and 14th in the 200 backstroke.

The most exciting race of the competition was the women’s 100 freestyle where Helen Gasson and Gabrielle Fa’amausili both hit the wall in a time of 55.56. The championship was the fourth for Gasson and the third for Fa’amausili.

Wilrich Coetzee was walked away from Auckland with the largest number of gold finishing off the meet with his six victory taking the men’s 200 butterfly in a time of 1:55.98 improving on his lifetime best of 1:57.87.

Australian Emily Washer closed the competition by winning her fifth event taking the women’s 200 butterfly in a time of 2:07.02 finishing over five seconds ahead of the field.