On-Fire Fairweather Hits 4:02.62 SCM 400 Free At NZL Secondary Schools

2020 NEW ZEALAND SECONDARY SCHOOL CSHIPS

• Thursday, October 15th – Sunday, October 18th
• Water Te Rapa, Hamilton, NZL
• SCM (25m)
• Results

While competing on day 1 of the 2020 New Zealand Secondary School Championships, 16-year-old Erika Fairweather ripped a new personal best in the women’s 400m freestyle.

Following up on her stellar performances last weekend at the NZL Short Course Championships at this same venue, Fairweather blasted a SCM 400 free time of 4:02.62 tonight to crush her fellow competitors and establish a new age record.

Entering this meet, Fairweather’s personal best and age record for 16-year-olds sat at the 4:04.33 she clocked just this past August. Then last weekend, the Neptune swimmer representing Kavanagh College here neared that same mark, hitting a time of 4:06.00 to take the national title.

However, Fairweather entered new territory with her huge 4:02.62 tonight, hacking well over a second off her PB to rocket up the list of all-time Kiwi performers and insert herself in slot #3 at just 16 years of age.

All-Time New Zealand Women 400 SCM Freestyle Performers

1. Lauren Boyle, 3:55.16 2013
2. Melissa Ingram, 4:02.03, 2011
3. Erika Fairweather, 4:02.62 2020
4. Helen Norfolk, 4:04.51, 2008
5. Emma Robinson, 4:07.01 2018

Splits for Fairweather’s performance here include the following:

As mentioned, Fairweather had already impressed this month at the NZL Short Course National Championships last weekend. At this same locale a week ago, Fairweather took down an 800m free national age record that had been on the books for 27 years by hitting a PB of 8:25.62.

She also logged a huge new PB and age record of 1:55.23 in the 200m free, so we’ll keep our eyes out for improvements in both of those distances before these Secondary School Championships are through.