2023 NEW ZEALAND SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, August 8th – Saturday, August 12th
- Hawkes Bay Regional Aquatic Center
- SCM (25m)
- Psych Sheets
- Recap #1
- Live Results
- Livestream
The 2023 New Zealand Short Course Championships wrapped up over the weekend from Hawkes Bay but not before additional new national records went down.
World Championships bronze medalist Erika Fairweather continued her momentum from Fukuoka, ripping a new lifetime best in the women’s 200m freestyle.
Fairweather stopped the clock in a time of 1:53.07 to top the domestic podium, blowing away her previous lifetime best and Kiwi national record of 1:54.24. That prior effort was logged in December of 2022. Fairweather split 55.34/58.90 to get the job done and be situated among the top 36 performers worldwide all-time.
The 19-year-old Neptune swimmer also bagged the gold in the women’s 400m free, winning by nearly 5 seconds. Fairweather notched 3:59.79 for the victory and also wound up at the wall first in the 100m free in 53.91.
The former represents the 3rd-fastest result of her career while the latter checked in as her new personal best and first time ever under the 54-second barrier. Fairweather is coming within striking distance of the longstanding 100m free national record of 53.57 Hayley Palmer put on the books in 2009.
Andrew Jeffcoat also did record-breaking damage over the course of the meet, establishing new marks in the 50m and 100m backstroke events.
In the shorter, Jeffcoat nabbed a time of 22.99 as lead-off on his Club 37’s men’s 4x50m medley relay, destroying his own previous NR of 23.46 notched in 2020.
As for the longer race, Jeffcoat dipped under the 51-second threshold for the first time in his career. The 24-year-old earned a time of 50.83 as he led-off his Club 37’s men’s 4x100m medley relay. In fact, he negative-split his opening leg, with a front half of 25.82 and a closing back half of 25.01. His result easily beat out his previous NR of 51.02 from 2020.
Monique Wieruszowski nabbed a new national age record for 16-year-olds in the 50m breaststroke. The Aquabladz teen stopped the clock in 30.69, slicing .21 off of the previous age mark of 30.90 Brearna Crawford put up in 2019.,
Additional Notes
- 23-year-old Carter Swift collected multiple pieces of hardware throughout the competition, including in the 50m fly. He topped that event’s podium in a time of 23.55 while also clocking 27.09 to win the 50m fly. Swift’s time of 47.55 also was quick enough to earn gold in the 100m free while his 50m free mark of 21.86 added another gold to his kitty.
- National record holder Helena Gasson also made her presence known across multiple events, beginning with the 50m fly. The 28-year-old Coast swimmer clocked 25.86 to come within half a second of her own national record of 25.38 from last year. Gasson also earned 100m fly gold in 57.83 and 50m back gold in 27.16.
Should do an article on this :
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/swimming-apology-after-air-quality-failure-at-big-swim-champs-in-hastings/GCOQBSGCW5CQRAVGDX7AIZYLXE/
Swimming NZ still hasn’t apologised, while the pool operators have… many swimmers still sick when SNZ should have paused the meet… apparently they have been reported to WorkSafe. Fairweather scratched her 800 due to the risk from poor air quality.
We had most of our World Junior squad racing this meet, praying they don’t get sick before Israel or else those families are spending a lot of $$$ for swimmers to race while recovering.