2017 NEW ZEALAND OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Monday, April 3rd – Friday, April 7th
- Sir Owen G. Glenn National Aquatic Centre, Auckland, NZ
- LCM
- Day 1 Recap
- Results – Meet Mobile – 2017 NZ Open Championships
The 2017 New Zealand Open Championships, which doubles as the World Championships Trials for the nation, saw one additional Budapest qualifier on day 2. Yesterday we saw two women and one man make the mark, with Kiwi swimmers Helena Gasson, Emma Robinson and Corey Main earning roster spots. Today, 25-year-old Matthew Stanley evened up the line-up, dipping beneath the World Championship qualification mark in the 200m freestyle.
Bond University-trained Stanley got the job done in the morning, notching a swift 1:47.55 to take the top seed, as well as comfortably slide under the FINA A cut of 1:47.73. Stanley, whose Gold Coast-based club is also called home by Aussie speedster Cameron McEvoy, holds the New Zealand national record in the event with the 1:47.09 he clocked back in 2014 at the Pan Pacific Championships.
The evening race posed more of a challenge, however, as Stanley wasn’t able to replicate his sub-1:48 outing. He and Matthew Hutchins, the NCAA’s Big Ten Swimmer of the Year in 2016 representing Wisconsin, battled to the wall and wound up tying one another with the identical time of 1:48.53. For Hutchins, the 200m freestyle race was his 2nd close qualifying call, as he was also about a second off of the FINA A cut in the 400m freestyle yesterday. He’ll still have a shot at the 1500m freestyle event later in the meet.
New Zealand World Championships Qualifiers Through Day 2:
- Corey Main – 200 backstroke
- Helena Gasson – 50 butterfly
- Emma Robinson – 800 freestyle
- Matthew Stanley – 200 freestyle
Additional Winners on the Day:
- Carina Doyle took the women’s 200m freestyle in a time of 2:00.98.
- Bradlee Ashby scored a personal best in the 400m IM, stopping the clock at 4:18.68.
- The women’s 200m breaststroke saw Natasha Lloyd as its victor, earning a gold medal-winning time of 2:31.74.
- The men’s 200m breaststroke was won by 22-year-old Julian Layton, who touched in 2:12.80.
- Yesterday’s 50m butterfly winner, Helena Gasson, took a 2nd win today with a 59.43 100m butterfly time. That represented the only sub-minute mark of the morning, but her result was short of the 58.48 needed for Budapest qualification.
- Stanford swimmer Sam Perry won the men’s 100m butterfly in a time of 53.97.