Oscar Pedersen (13), of Oamaru, on his way to setting an
Eastern Districts record in his heat of the 200m butterfly
at the Otago-Canterbury championships at Moana Pool
yesterday. Photo by Linda Roberston.
Chris Dickie (Waves) qualified for the open nationals
when he broke the Otago record twice at Moana Pool yesterday.
Dickie (15), a pupil at Otago Boys' High School, swam
31.98sec in his morning heat of the 50m breaststroke and went
faster in the evening when he won the Otago championship
final in 31.72sec.
He was followed home in the boys aged 14 and 15 final by Han
Zhang 34.44sec and Kyle Uys (Timaru) 35.05sec.
"I wanted to go faster tonight," he said.
"I corrected the mistake I made this morning when I got up
out of the water too early."
It was the third time that Dickie has broken this record.
The first time was at the national age-group championships in
Wellington last season.
"I have trained a lot harder this year and got my mental
attitude right," he said.
His coach Andy Adair said that Dickie is a talented swimmer
and has a natural feeling for the water.
"Technically he is very good and has a good rhythm," Adair
said.
He has the natural attributes to become an international
swimmer if he is prepared to put his energies into the sport.
Kurt Crosland (Neptune) continued his remarkable comeback to
competitive swimming by breaking two more Otago open men's
records last night.
In the 50m breaststroke he beat the record held by his
training partner Matthew Glassford for the last three years
with his winning time of 30.09sec. Glassford was second in
31.63sec.
In the 50m freestyle Crosland (27) beat the record that
Olympian Scott Cameron set 12 years ago with his time of
26.14sec.
The old record was 26.16sec.
The fastest time in the event was swum by Cameron Simpson
(Templeton) who has been training on the Gold Coast for the
last 12 months and is an Olympic prospect in the relay.
His time was 23.65sec.
Simpson (25), a physiotherapist, was in a class of his own in
the sprints at the championships and proved it by giving
Templeton a body length lead after the first lap of the open
men's 200m freestyle relay.
Crosland was half-a-body length behind at the start of the
last lap but sent the water at Moana Pool sizzling as he
closed the gap on the Christchurch club of Aquagym to give
Neptune a narrow win.
The Neptune team of Nick Tyrrell, Matthew Glassford, Robert
Murray and Crosland won in a time of 1min 41.10sec from
Aquagym 1min 41.23sec.
The other Otago record of the night went to Jeremy Hopkins
(Neptune) in the boys aged 13 and 14 50m freestyle in
26.51sec.
Oscar Pedersen (Oamaru) broke a five-year-old Eastern
Districts boys aged 12 and 13 200m butterfly record twice.
In the heat he clocked 2min 31.44sec and swam faster in the
final when he won the Otago title in 2min 30.49sec.
Dani Walsh (Oamaru) has qualified for eight events at the
junior nationals after three days of the championships and
has won gold medals in her age group in the 400m freestyle,
200m individual medley and 200m backstroke.
Queenstown's Sophie Gibson won the girls aged 14 and 15 200m
individual medley in 2min 34.95sec.
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