Erika Fairweather Jumps to #2 All-Time on NZ All-Time Rankings in 200 Free

7TH FINA WORLD JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2019

  • 50-Meter Course
  • Duna Arena, Budapest (Hungary)
  • Pool swimming: Tuesday, August 20 – Sunday, August 25, 2019
  • Heats 9:30am GMT+2 (3:30 am EDT / 12:30 am PDT)/ Semifinals and Finals 5:30pm GMT+2 (11:30am EDT / 8:30am PDT)
  • Meet site
  • Entries book
  • FinaTV Live Stream(subscription required)
  • Live results

15-year-old Erika Fairweather lowered her own New Zealand Age Record en route to gold in the women’s 200m freestyle on the final night of competition at these World Junior Championships. Fairweather nabbed gold in a new lifetime best of 1:57.96 to claim New Zealand’s only gold, and only medal of any color, at this biannual international competition.

The 3rd-seeded swimmer in the 200 free entering the competition in Budapest, Fairweather’s lifetime best sat at the 1:58.84 she clocked as lead-off on the Kiwi women’s 4x200m freestyle relay at this year’s senior World Championships. At that meet in Gwangju, Fairweather’s lead-off helped land that New Zealand relay in 10th place in the prelims to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games.

Here at these World Juniors, Fairweather produced a morning swim of 1:59.87 to claim the 3rd seed before firing off the best time of her career in 1:57.96 to mildly upset the field for gold. Splitting 57.94/1:00.02, Fairweather denied Aussie Lani Pallister another gold after she already took the 400m, 800m, and 1500m freestyle trifecta.

Instead, Pallister was relegated to silver in 1:58.09, while Canada’s Emma O’Croinin earned the bronze in 1:58.64.

With her performance, 15-year-old Fairweather now ranks as the 2nd fastest New Zealand 200m freestyler ever, sitting only behind Olympian Lauren Boyle whose fastest swim checks in as the New Zealand National Record of 1:56.82 notched back in 2014.

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suzzie2010
4 years ago

As many articles by the same author. The article about Van Der Merwe states that she won silver in 100 breast in one paragraph, then that she won bronze in the other. Further it states that she broke National Age group record that is slower than her morning time..

Peni
4 years ago

Great article but the time is not correct. Erika’s final winning time was 1:57.96

Swimnerd
4 years ago

Splits don’t add up for the 1:58.54.

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Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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