The 10th Annual Oceania Swimming Championships start in Auckland, New Zealand on Tuesday May 20th. There will be 174 athletes from 14 nations competing over four days.
- Heats will be at 10:00 am local time (6:00 pm EST)
- Finals will be at 6:30 pm local time (2:30 am EST)
Full meet information can be found here
Psych sheets can be found here
Full results can be found here
This competition will be used by Australian and New Zealand swimming as more of a development meet for their up and coming talent. Many of the athletes competing will also be part of their nation’s squad heading to Nanjing, China for the Youth Olympic Games in August.
Having said that New Zealand will also have a number of athletes from their Commonwealth Games team using the meet as preparation for the games in Glasgow this summer, “The members of the Commonwealth Games squad racing this week are all coming in on full training load. Therefore we are not expecting their times to be at their best,” said Swimming New Zealand High Performance Centre coach, David Lyles.
“They have a full schedule of events this week and that will test them and it’s a chance to put into practice the plans and protocols that we will follow at Glasgow.”
“It will all be important racing practice for the team, while for younger swimmers it is a change to hone their skills under the pressure of international competition.”
The most notable name missing from the Kiwi’s team is Lauren Boyle, who will be training in Spain.
The women’s sprint backstroke events will be a battle between the two most promising swimmers from the home country, Gabrielle Fa’amausili and Bobbi Gichard. Both girls are 14 years of age and going in as the first and second seed in both the 50 an 100 backstroke. Fa’amausili with times of 28.14 and 1:01.32 and Gichard not far behind with lifetime bests of 28.98 and 1:01.34.
A few of the more high profile Australian swimmers at the meet include 15 year old Kyle Chalmers, who recently broke Ian Thorpe‘s 15 year old age group record in the 100 freestyle. Chalmers will be going into the event with the fastest entry time of 49.68 and is the second fastest entry in the 50 freestyle with a 22.68. Chalmers will be challenged by Australian teammate Blake Jones in the 50 and New Zealand national team member Matt Stanley in the 100.
Brianna Throssell is going into all three butterfly events as the top qualifier (26.61/59.20/2:09.83), but she have stiff competition from the likes of Laura Quilter in the 50 and Samantha Lee and Sophia Batchelor in the 100. While her Australian teammate Ami Matsuo is the top qualifier in the 100 freestyle (54.72) and 200 freestyle (1:58.22). Matsuo will have her hands full with her 15 year old Australian teammate Shayna Jack in the 100.
All three Australian teammates, Throssell, Matsuo and Jack will be going head to head to head in the 50 freestyle, which should make for a compelling event.