Boyle puts up a world best in the 800 freestyle

On the fourth night of the State New Zealand Open Championships Lauren Boyle capped off her final evening of racing by winning the 800 freestyle in a time of 8:23.11, which is the fastest time done in the world this year.

Later in the evening Boyle stepped up to the blocks again for the 100 freestyle, which she won in a time of 55.75, once again achieving the World Championships qualifying time for the event. Once the night was finished she had qualified to swim five freestyle events, 100 through 1500, in Barcelona.

“I thought once I got my first qualification out of the way in the 400m that I’d just do something to really try and challenge myself so I decided to swim every event that I was entered in,” said the said Boyle.

“I guess I didn’t know what to expect with all the changes in coaching but for now I’m thinking I’m going to stay in New Zealand and wait for the new coach and hope that it pans out well.

“It’s relieving to qualify for the team and you just have to try and get something out of the situation that you didn’t really know what to do with,” she said.

Gareth Kean who qualified for the World Championships in the 100 backstroke yesterday, followed that up by qualifying for the 200 backstroke, winning the event in a time of 1:58.39, “It was definitely hard. It is how I wanted to swim it, to go out hard and really feel the hard. It was not a really fast time but you have to swim that aggressively to get a good time,” Kean said.

Kean had a disappointing Olympic experience and feels that this year will be much better, “I think I’ve got a very positive outlook for this year. Everything has clicked into place and i think after last year’s Olympics I am really motivated to come back and prove myself.”

Glenn Synders was the third athlete of the evening to add another event to his schedule in Barcelona, brining the total number of events for Kiwi swimmer to 13. Snyders won the 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:12.52.

“We don’t really do 200m work, I’m normally in what they call short sprint so it’s a bit different. I tend to do a lot of fast paced 50s and broken 200s, different things like that,” said Snyders.

“I plan to go back to America as soon as possible, just to get back into the programme. Around the end of May I think we may be going to Europe so it might tie in quite well.”