Acacia Wildin-Snedden and Helena Gasson both collected their third individual gold medals on Wednesday night at the Oceania Championships. Wildin-Snedden came into the night having won the women’s 200 freestyle on the first day of competition and the 400 IM on Tuesday evening. The 18 year old Australian took the 400 freestyle in a time of 4:17.00.
Helena Gasson of New Zealand picked up her third gold of the championships winning the women’s 100 butterfly in a time of 59.91. Gasson also picked up victories in the 50 butterfly and 100 freestyle on the first two nights of competition.
After winning eight events on Tuesday night the Kiwis returned to the pool to collect four more gold. Bronagh Ryan won her second event of the competition taking the women’s 50 breaststroke in a time of 33.52. Ryan was followed closely by 14 year old Moana Wild of Fiji who posted a 33.78. Wind was only two one-hundredths of a second away from breaking Rachel Ah Koy‘s Fijian national record of 33.76, which she put up in 2003.
Kiwis Annabelle Paterson took the gold in the women’s 200 backstroke while Corneille Coetzee won the men’s event. Paterson dominated the field finishing over seven seconds ahead of the next competitor posting a time of 2:16.68. Coetzee won the men’s event in a time of 2:03.62.
The Australians matched the Kiwis gold total winning four events on Wednesday evening. Adding to Wildin-Snedden’s win Cameron Jones was victorious for the second time of the championships taking the men’s 100 butterfly in a time of 53.69. He was followed by 34 year old Ryan Pini of Papua New Guinea who finished in a time of 54.13, almost two full seconds off his championship record time of 52.33, which he posted in 2008.
The Aussies also won both the women’s and the men’s 400 freestyle relay. The women took the event in a time of 3:48.73 while the men won the event in a time of 3:20.25.
Benjamin Schulte of Guam won the men’s 50 breaststroke in a time of 29.26. Schulte won his second event of the competition in a national record time beating his previous record of 29.54, which he put up at the Pacific Games last summer.
Robert Wesley took the men’s 400 freestyle in a time of 3:57.91 beating his own national record time of 4:07.60.
Full results can be found here.
