Swimming New Zealand homepage

The start of something extraordinary

Hunter breaks national freestyle record

Counties Manukau swimmer Daniel Hunter claimed a long-standing national record on the final morning of heats at the 2016 New Zealand Open Swimming Championships.

The 21 year old clocked 49.43s to top qualifiers in the 100m freestyle, going under the record of 49.54 set by Mark Herring in 2008.

Hunter has come close but no cigar to date this week, finishing just 4/100ths off meeting the Rio Olympic qualifying standard in the 50m freestyle.

The 2m Howick Pakuranga swimmer has one further chance in the 100m freestyle in tonight’s final to lower his record under the Rio qualifying standard of 48.99s.

North Shore’s Laura Quilter topped times for the women’s 100m freestyle in 56.93s, while clubmate Helena Gasson, who has met the Rio mark in the 200m butterfly, was best in the 400m medley heats in 5:00.10.

North Shore’s Corneille Coetzee was best in heats of the 200m backstroke in 2:04.20 ahead of Rio qualifying swimmer Bradlee Ashby (Fairfield), with United’s Annabelle Paterson topping the women in 2:15.32.

Paralympic stars Sophie Pascoe and Mary Fisher continued on their world class form, both going under the Rio nomination time in heats of the 100m freestyle in 1:01.05 and 1:10.45 respectively with Pascoe to eye the world record of 59.17 tonight.

They were joined by Te Awamutu’s Nikita Howarth who went under the nomination time in the 50m butterfly in 35.59s.

Tonight’s finals begin at 7pm and will be broadcast live on Sky Sport 3.

NZ Open Championships