Swimming: Lloyd dominant in her specialist breast stroke

Natasha Lloyd (North Canterbury) was the queen of Moana Pool last night in her specialist breaststroke event.

Lloyd (17) led from the start and won the open women's 100m breaststroke in 1min 13.29sec from Katie Kenneally (Neptune) in 1min 15.46sec.

The win helped Canterbury Shockwaves to hold on to their slender lead over the Otago Stars in the interprovincial competition.

Lloyd, a pupil at St Andrews College in Christchurch, came into the competition with confidence after winning a bronze medal in the 200m breaststroke at the Sydney Youth Olympics the previous week.

Her time in Sydney of 2min 30.67sec was just short of the New Zealand senior women's record.

Last year at the New Zealand open championships she won the three senior women's breaststroke titles.

A feature of her race last night was the length of time she spent under water. It gave her the edge over Kenneally.

''I train hard to get underwater distance on the dive and off the wall,'' Lloyd said.

It has been a busy two weeks for Lloyd in Sydney and Dunedin and she showed signs of fatigue in the last 25m when she rose too high out of the water.

The prince of the pool last night was Matthew Hutchins (Wharenui) who won the open men's 200m freestyle (1min 55.72sec) and 100m butterfly (58.30sec) double.

He blitzed Matthew Glassford (Neptune) in the 200m freestyle, winning by 3sec.

It was closer in the butterfly with Nick Tyrrell (Neptune) finishing just 0.5sec behind him.

Isobel Ryan (Oamaru), a pupil at St Kevin's College, stole a march on the field when she won the girls aged 15 and 16 200m freestyle in a personal best time of 2min 10.59sec.

She followed the instructions of her coach Shane Jones.

''He told me to be brave and go out hard and not worry about the back end of the race,'' Ryan said.

''I have always been able to finish well.''

It worked. She had two bodylengths on the field at halfway and held out a fast finishing Kelly Scammell (Aquagym) who clocked 2min 11.28sec.

There was a sense of relief for Waves swimmers yesterday when a temporary coaching system was put in place to take them to the New Zealand championships.

Dunedin Swim Coaching Board chairman Lindsay Dey said his committee has appointed Osca coach Gennadiy Labara to work with the senior swimmers and John Cornfoot to work with the junior squad.

These are only interim arrangements until we have made a permanent appointment to the swim coaching role,'' Dey said.

The other members of the new board are Matthew Heaton, Sean McMahon, Kay Alexander, and John Brimble.

The board expects to appoint a new full-time coach in April.