The 2021 Apollo Projects Short Course Championships kicks off today at the Sir Owen Glenn National Aquatic Centre in Auckland. Held across five days from 17 – 21 August 2021, this event will see the best athletes from around the country battle it out to the title of national champion. The event will also serve as a selection meet for the 2021 FINA World Short Course Championships to be held in Abu Dhabi in December.
The event has an incredible 766
athletes competing, making it the second ever biggest swimming event that has
been run by Swimming New Zealand. Last year’s numbers were considerably lower
due to the event being impacted by Covid-19 restrictions. The 2020 NZ Short
Course was rescheduled from its original dates in Auckland and instead moved to
Hamilton.
Helena Gasson from Coast Swim Club
dominated at the 2019 Short Course Championships, breaking a total of six New
Zealand Short Course Open Records in the Women’s 100m IM, 200m IM, 100m
Butterfly and 200m Butterfly. Last year in 2020, Gasson focused instead on the
2020 International Swim League (ISL) and broke an outstanding eleven NZ SC Open
Records. Helena is back this year before she heads off on another ISL tour next
month and she is sure to bring back the bang!
Another athlete to keep an eye on
this year will be backstroke swimmer, Andrew Jeffcoat from Pukekohe Swim Club.
Missing from the Short Course lineup last year due to Covid, he didn’t fall
short on his performance at the 2020 North Shore Invitational, which ran
alongside Short Course last year. Jeffcoat broke four NZ SC Open Records at the
meet and will be looking to top that this year! He is the current holder for
all backstroke SC Records, the 50m, 100m and 200m distances.
A total of 20 para swimmers will
compete at Short Course, many of them hold current NZ Para SC Records and will
look to break them this week. The youngest to compete is 13-year-old Erin Knox
from Swim Zone Racing. Jane Fox and David Beck are current holders of the S14
50m, 100m, 200m and 400m Freestyle events, so we look forward to watching them
both swim and try to beat their own records.
Melissa Cowen from North Shore Swim
Club holds the current NZ SC Open record in the 100m Breaststroke. Cowen will
be looking to take back the NZ SC Open Record in the 200m Breaststroke event.
After breaking the record last year, her success was shortly trumped by Brearna
Crawford who swam 0.1 seconds faster, breaking a new record. Crawford will not
be present at this year’s event as she has travelled to the US to study at
Indiana University.
There are some top age-group swimmers
amongst the athletes this year. North Shore’s Cameron Gray and Taiko Taiko
Torpe-Ormsby from Wharenui Swim Club, both 18 years old, are always great
competition to watch! Taiko most recently broke a record in the Men’s 50m
Freestyle, which was standing for over 13 years.
17-year-old Laura Littlejohn from St
Paul’s Swim Club is swimming in several events and distances in freestyle,
backstroke, butterfly and individual medley. Also 17, Capital’s Sam Brown is
the top seed in the Men’s 400 IM. The record for this event is held by Olympian
Dean Kent from 2003 when he swam 4:06.66 at the FINA World Cup in Berlin. Dean
is actually swimming this year, in the 50m Breaststroke. Brother and also
Olympian, Steve Kent is also competing in the 100m and 200m Freestyle events.
PROGRAMME https://www.livetiming.se/program.php?cid=5940&mc_cid=a6672ca625&mc_eid=2113b287ad
RESULTS https://www.livetiming.se/results.php?cid=5940&mc_cid=a6672ca625&mc_eid=2113b287ad
LIVE TIMING https://www.livetiming.se/live.php?cid=5940&mc_cid=a6672ca625&mc_eid=2113b287ad
Michael Phelps Teaches Swimming
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