Brown & Hazel The Colours Of Day Two
Sam Brown (Coast) and Hazel Ouwehand (Phoenix Aquatics) were the stars on day two of the 2024 Apollo Projects NZ Short Course Swimming Championships in Auckland.
Sam Brown produced the performance of his life to achieve his first World Aquatics "A" time of his career in the Men's 400m Individual Medley. Brown looked strong across all four strokes as he motored away from the field. With the crowd sensing a fast time as he entered the freestyle leg, his teammates and fellow swimmers were waving frantically to help him get to the wall. Brown (4:08.84) secured a personal best of more than three seconds on his way to gold and punching a qualifying mark for the 2024 World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) to be held in Budapest later this year. Blair Helms (North Shore - 4:16.90) swam the second fastest time of his career to win silver ahead of Australian visitor Harrison Biddell (4:18.80) and Hugo Batchelor (United - 4:19.52) who shared the same step on the podium for bronze.
Hazel Ouwehand has returned from Paris in fine form as she produced a World Aquatics "A" time in the Women's 50m Butterfly. Ouwehand (25.60) got her hands on the wall first, just ahead of Helena Gasson (Coast - 25.70) who also secured her third World Aquatics "A" time at these championships. It was an impressive display to see another event where two Kiwis have achieved the "A" time. Aquablack Laura Quilter (Coast - 26.78) was the third Kiwi on the wall, with Australian visitor Olivia Hine (26.06) rounding out the podium.
Gina McCarthy (Hamilton Aquatics & RPC Waikato - 4:40.43) produced her third fastest time in her career in the Women's 400m Individual Medley to take home the gold medal. Zyleika Pratt-Smith (Coast - 4:43.56) pushed McCarthy the whole way through the race, particularly making a move in the breaststroke leg, before McCarthy finished strongly in the freestyle. The battle was on for bronze, with Emilia Finer (Neptune & Swim Dunedin - 4:51.34) edging ahead of Olivia Bates (North Shore) in the final lap to earn her place on the podium.
Aquablack Cameron Gray (Coast - 23.18) won his first gold medal of the championships in the Men's 50m Butterfly upon recently returning from Paris. As is often the case in the sprint races, there wasn't much separating the top handful of swimmers, with Chris Elson (Vikings - 23.31) claiming the silver and Fergus Eadie (Coast - 23.41) completing the podium.
The Women's 200m Freestyle saw some impressive times, with Australian visitor Brittany Castelluzzo (1:55.60) showing her class in a dominant display. Aquablack Chelsey Edwards (North Shore - 1:57.09) produced a massive personal best to claim the Kiwi gold medal as she went out with Castelluzzo over the opening half of the race to finish ahead of teammate Summer Osborne (North Shore - 1:59.53) who won silver on her final night before flying out for US College tomorrow. Jesse Welsh (Club 37 - 2:01.34) rounded out the podium as she continued her form from the 2024 Oceania Championships in April.
Aquablack Carter Swift (Club 37 - 1:45.75) had a busy night, taking home the Men's 200m Freestyle. A distance slightly longer than his preferred 100m, Swift led thanks to his trademark excellent dives. Swift paced his race well, extending his lead during the middle stages to establish an unassailable lead. Australian visitor Charlie Russell (1:47.16) held off the fast-finishing Louis Clark (North Shore - 1:47.33) to be second on the wall, with Ben Littlejohn (St Paul's - 1:47.65) getting the Kiwi bronze.
Swift returned to anchor his Club 37 team to victory in the Men's 4 x 100m Medley Relay at the end of the session. In another boisterous atmosphere, it was North Shore who made the best start thanks to Cooper Morley's backstroke, before Club 37 took the lead in the breaststroke leg as Josh Gilbert continued off from last night's form. From there on, there was no one catching Club 37 (3:33.01) as they retained their title ahead of North Shore (3:38.08) and United (3:43.16).
The podium was overflowing with swimmers for the final race of the night, with five relay teams squished into three steps in the Women's 4 x 100m Medley Relay. The Swimming Queensland A team (4:03.84) were impressive as they cleared away from the field to be the fastest team overall. The South Australia team (4:06.66) did their best to bridge the gap to be second on the wall. The third team to touch was Coast (4:08.37) who retained their New Zealand title, with North Shore (4:09.44) winning the Kiwi silver and Hamilton Aquatics (4:13.71) the bronze, having just been out-touched by the Swimming Queensland B team. It was a fitting conclusion to what had been a great night of racing.
James Haydon (Club 37 - 32.38) took home the gold in the Men's 50m Butterfly Multi-Class, ahead of Daniel Smith (Pukekohe - 26.39), who continued his fine form by breaking the S19 New Zealand Record twice in the same day, and Preston Maxwell (Nga Tai Tuatea a Taraika - 34.15) who claimed his first open medal with bronze. Special mention to Luka Willems (Wharenui - 43.80) who broke the S18 New Zealand Record twice in the day as well to place fourth.
In the Women's 50m Butterfly Multi-Class, Australian visitor Jasmin Fullgrabe (32.99) continued her strong form to win the visitor gold with Rylee Sayer (Matamata - 40.65) joining her on the top step of the podium. Charlotte Rozen (Wharenui - 53.99) won her first national open medal with silver medal, with Australian visitor Jordan Berryman (45.37) and Quinn Pike (Hamilton Aquatics - 33.87) winning the bronze. Pike's performance saw her claim the the S19 New Zealand Record, whilst Charlotte Murphy (Aquagym - 56.34) also broke the S6 New Zealand Record to place sixth.
During the morning session, the 400m Freestyle Multi-Class timed finals were held. In the Men's event, Asher Smith-Franklin (North Shore - 4:16.45) looked impressive to lead from start to finish with Jack Bugler (Blenheim - 4:35.08) and David Beck (Club 37 - 4:36.83) rounding out the podium. Other record-breaking performances in the event saw Ian Chen (St Paul's - 4:33.53) break the S19 New Zealand Record to place fourth, Joseph Blake (Hamilton Aquatics - 6:57.09) break the S18 New Zealand Record in fifth and Thomas Magill (Papamoa - 4:58.33) in seventh.
For the Women's event, Quinn Pike (4:58.84) took out the national title with Brooke Anderson (Vikings - 7:18.71) and Amber Proudfoot (Aquagym - 7:37.14) the silver and bronze respectively.
During the age group races in the morning there were some epic battles but too many to report upon. Therefore, we encourage everyone to look back at the livestream available free on the Swimming NZ YouTube channel and check out the results.
Make sure you are following Swimming NZ social media channels to stay up-to-date with the action across the week. Day two has plenty more exciting races that you don't want to miss.
