Titles, records keep falling to Fairweather

Erika Fairweather
Erika Fairweather
Erika Fairweather just goes from strength to strength.

The night after the 15-year-old Neptune swimmer clocked an A qualifying time in the 400m freestyle for next month's Fina world championships in South Korea, she followed up with that up with a second gold medal.

She won the 200m freestyle at the national open championships in Auckland last night by just under a second, ahead of former Dunedin swimmer Carina Doyle.

Her time of 1min 59.37sec was a 15 years national age-group record and under the development standard time for the world championships.

Her winning time of time of 4min 09.33sec in the 400m on Wednesday night smashed her own national record by 3sec - the same record she claimed in April after it had been held by Rebecca Perrott for 43 years.

She beat second-placed Eve Thomas by more than 2sec with Doyle third in 4min 12.38sec and Neptune's Caitlin Deans fourth in 4min 18.65sec.

It was a time that surprised even Fairweather.

"I'm so stoked. I did not expect to go that time," Fairweather said in a post-race interview as the crowd applauded her.

"I just want to say thank you to everyone who supported me and believed in me."

Wanaka's Hamish McLean also claimed a gold on Wednesday, winning the para 400m freestyle.

His time of 5min 33.33sec left him more than 20sec ahead of second-placed Harry Randall.

Neptune's Ben Carr also featured in the A final of the 100m butterfly and finished seventh.

 

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