Kurt Crosland, the comeback kid, set Moana Pool alight last
night when he broke his own Otago open men's 100m backstroke
record.
In fact he broke it twice. In the morning heats he swam
57.09sec and in the final he was clocked at 56.51sec.
"It's pretty cool to go under 57sec. I'm happy about that,"
he said.
Crosland (27) is a life guard at Moana Pool.
His coach, Gennadiy Labara, was pleased.
"We targeted that time," he said. "I'm sure he will get a
fast time in the open nationals."
There was good sense in Labara's comment because there was a
2.15sec drop-off in time with his second 50m last night.
If Crosland can get a more even second-lap split he could
lower his time by another 2sec and put himself on the podium
at the New Zealand open championships in April.
At the Southland championships in November, Crosland broke
Olympian Jonathan Duncan's 10-year Otago record with a time
of 57.17sec.
His comeback to the sport is a remarkable story. He was a
promising swimmer in Duncan Laing's squad and won two bronze
medals at the nat-ional open championships in the 50m
backstroke.
He started swimming at the age of 3 and gave it way at the
age of 18.
Crosland tried to come back with the Osca squad three years
ago but did not last long.
He had another try last July and was more resolute in his
determination to stick at it.
"My son, Riley, is aged 2 and I want to do something to make
him proud of me," he said.
That was not the end of Crosland's night because he came back
in style as part of the Neptune club's men's 200m medley
relay that came with a late rush to beat the Christchurch
club of Aquagym in a time of 1min 49.42sec. Aquagum swam 1min
50.71sec.
The Neptune team was Crosland (25sec), Matthew Glassford
(31sec), Nick Tyrrell (26sec) and Robert Murray (25sec).
It was a good night for Neptune swimmers with Glassford
winning the men's open 200m breaststroke in 2min 21.77sec and
Phillip Baxter the boys aged 14 and 15 race in 2min 37.34sec
from Han Zhang (2min 42.74sec).
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