2024 NEW ZEALAND SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, April 9th – Saturday, April 13th
- Hawke’s Bay Regional Aquatic Centre
- LCM (50m)
- Olympic Selection Criteria
- Meet Central
- Entries/Live Results
- Livestream
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap/Day 4 Recap
We entered the final day of racing at the 2024 New Zealand Swimming Championships with the 5-day competition representing a prime opportunity for swimmers to qualify for this summer’s Olympic Games.
We’ll be providing a full day 5 recap shortly but in the meantime wanted to break the news that 16-year-old Monique Wieruszowski threw down another impressive performance to take the women’s 50m breast.
Entering this meet, the teen’s lifetime best and NZL national record stood at the 30.42 notched at December’s Queensland Championships.
Today at Hawke’s Bay, however, Wieruszowski shaved off another .04 to bring her record down to 30.38. That crushed tonight’s field, with the next-closest competitor represented by Helena Gasson who snagged silver over a second back in 32.03. Zyleika Pratt-Smith rounded out the podium in 33.49.
Teen Wieruszowski is the reigning World Junior Championships silver medalist in this 50m breast event. At that meet in Netanya, Israel, Wieruszowski clocked a time of 30.68 to finish behind champion Eneli Jefimova of Estonia.
Wieruszowski’s outing here checks her in among the top 10 performers in the world on the season.
2023-2024 LCM Women 50 Breast
MEILUTYTE
29.40
| 2 | Qianting TANG | CHN | 29.51 | 02/18 |
| 3 | Benedetta PILATO | ITA | 29.58 | 11/30 |
| 4 | Tatjana SCHOENMAKER | RSA | 30.09 | 04/08 |
| 5 | Satomi SUZUKI | JPN | 30.10 | 10/08 |
| 6 | Lara van NIEKERK | RSA | 30.16 | 04/08 |
| 7 | Imogen Clark | GBR | 30.20 | 11/30 |
| 8 | Eneli JEFIMOVA | EST | 30.23 | 10/08 |
| 9 | Siobhan Haughey | SGP | 30.36 | 10/15 |
| 9 | Ida HULKKO | FIN | 30.36 | 02/17 |
Wieruszowski also raced in the Olympic event of the women’s 100m breast earlier in this competition. She took gold in the event with a time of 1:07.88, a mark .21 outside the national record of 1:07.67 she put on the books just last month at the Auckland Championships.
The World Aquatics Olympic Qualification Time for the women’s 100m breast rests at 1:06.79.
New Zealand Olympic Qualifiers Through Day Four:
- Lewis Clareburt – men’s 400m IM (4:09.72)
- Erika Fairweather – women’s 200m free (1:55.77), 400m free (3:59.44), 800m free (8:22.26)
- Eve Thomas – women’s 400m free (4:05.87), 800m free (8:24.86), 1500m free (16:07.46)
- Hazel Ouwehand — women’s 100m fly (57.43)
- Cameron Gray — men’s 100 free (48.26)
- Kane Follows — men’s 200 back (1:57.13)
Notes:
- Events that were pre-qualified at the 2024 World Championships are italicized. Events qualified at this Olympic Trials meet are in bold.
- Relay qualifiers are not yet included in the above roster, as they are not official.
Anyone know why NZ time trialed a women’s 4×1 medley if qualification for relays has already been set?
Guess they just really wanted to break that longstanding national record. They should have send this relay to Worlds, with a 4:00.8 they have around 2 seconds on the 16th place country (Singapore).
Hopefully the federation recognize this and can focus more on relays next quad. They could have qualified 4×1 women’s medley, 4×1 men’s free, and even outside shots in 4×1 men’s and mixed medley (lacking a good breast leg though).
Swim NZ not interested in relays. None at last Comm Games when every country imaginable had them there including tiny Carribean Nations. I think its a money thing which is a real shame. If they signalled interest then swimmers would train for them and they would be even quicker eg womens 4 x200.