Aussies win 50 medals at 11th Oceania Championships – Wrap up:

 

 

  

 

Swimming Australia, June 29 2016: The Australian swim team has wrapped up the 11th Oceania Swimming Championships in Suva, winning a total of 50 medals, including 19 gold, 22 silver and 9 bronze.

 

Alessandra Colombini secured the open water double – adding the final 50th gold medal of the meet in the 5km on the last day to match her 10km gold and 800m freestyle silver.

 

Fellow Australian Bianca Crisp made it a 1-2 finish for Australia in the 5km event, swum in millpond conditions – a far cry from the wind chop that greeted competitors at the Uprising Resort on the opening day, replicating the results from the 10km on the first day.

 

On the final night in the pool:

 

Breaststroke pair Zac Stubblety-Cook (2:16.69) and Rebecca Cross (2:34.83) won the male and female 200m breaststroke respectively before the foursome of backstroker Zac Incerti (55.79), breaststroker Nathan Zhu (1:03.49), butterflyer Cameron Jones (53.97) and freestyler Jake Kersten (49.42) combined for a stirring victory in the 4x100m medley relay in 3:42.67.

 

Team Leader and dual Olympian Martin Roberts was impressed with the performance of the team and was excited to see them continue on their elite swimming pathway.

 

“It has been a terrific week in Fiji for the Australian Team at the 11th Oceania Swimming Championships. This event was an outstanding opportunity for our young pool and open water athletes to develop their international performance skills. We hope to see many from this group grow into future Dolphins by Tokyo 2020,” Roberts said.

 

In other events on the final night, the Australian combination of Bryan Poon 52.01; Thomas Wotton 51.56; Acacia Wildin-Snedden 57.23 and Mikaela Cornelissen 57.82, won silver in the 4x100m Mixed Freestyle Relay

 

Open Water 5 and 10 kilometre gold medallist Colombini added the silver in the 800m freestyle (9:00.97) to her tally;

 

Rebecca Cross (2:18.94) and Hadley Lindsay (2:19.94) won silver and bronze respectively in the 200IM;

 

World Junior Champion from 2013 Jones (22.82) won silver in the 50m freestyle;

 

Natasha Ramsden (25.96) and Hadley Lindsay (26.25) took silver and bronze in the 50m freestyle;

 

Zhu (2:17.13) dead-heated for silver in the 200m breaststroke and;

The women's 4x100m medley relay team of backstroker Abby Duncan (1:04.31); breaststroker Bec Cross (1:14.25), butterflyer Alice Stuart (1:00.24) and freestyler Natasha Ramsden (57.69) dug deep to finish the meet off with silver in the final race of the Championships.

The Australianskicked off the meet winning 12 medals, including six gold on the first night:

Gold medals went to Cameron Jones in the men’s 50m butterfly (24.27), Jake Kersten the men’s 200m freestyle (1:51.45), Acacia Wildin-Snedden in the women’s 200m freestyle (2:02.37), Zac Incerti in the men’s 100m backstroke (54.94), Alice Stuart the women’s 200fly (2:10.65) and the record breaking Mixed 4x50m freestyle relay team of Jones, Kersten, Abby Duncan and Natasha Ramsden (1:37.17).

Jones finished ahead of 34-year-old Papua New Guinea legend Ryan Pini who clocked a time of 24.45.

Kersten picked up Australia’s second victory in the men’s 200 freestyle while Wildin-Snedden won the women’s event coming from behind in the final 50 metres.

Incerti won the men’s 100 backstroke and his time of 54.94 just missed fellow countryman Robert Hurley‘s Oceania Championship record of 54.91 by three one-hundredths of a second.

Hurley holds the Oceania Championship records in the 200 and 400 freestyle as well as the 50, 100 and 200 backstroke.

Gold CoasterStuart collected Australia’s final individual gold in the women’s 200 butterfly touching in an impressive time, swimming away from the field in 2:10.65.

There was a popular win to Wesley Robert in the men’s 1500m freestyle, who won the Cook Islands first gold medal, in fact their first ever Oceania medal.

Robert, who trains at the Wests Illawarra club in NSW alongside Australia’s recently selected Olympic marathon swimmer Jarrod Poort, clocked 15:44.27.

The Australians were also victorious in the mixed 200 freestyle relay setting a new Oceania Championship record of 1:37.17, lowering the 2014 Australian team’s time of 1:37.40.

The only other championship record broken on the first day of competition was the mixed 400 medley relay. New Zealand took the event in a time of 3:54.39 beating the record of 3:55.46 set by the 2014 squad from the same country.

 

Australia continued to build on its medal tally on night two winning three gold, six silver and two bronze medals:

St Peters Western’s Acacia Wildin-Snedden clocked a personal best time of 4:49.84 to win her second individual gold of the meet in the 400m individual medley from team mate Bec Cross from Ginninderra in 4:54.64.

It followed Wildin-Snedden’s opening night victory in the 200m freestyle.

Also adding to his golden haul was UWA West Coast’s Zac Incerti who added the 50m backstroke in 25.91 to his victory in the 100m backstroke in 54.94.

And in the last event of the night Incerti (1:50.85) anchored the men’s 4x200m freestyle team to victory with team mates Jake Kersten (1:50.93 lead off) Bryan Poon (1:53.54) and Thomas Wotton (1:51.87).

 

Oceania Swimming Championships, Suva, FULL RESULTS

MEN

50m freestyle D Hunter (NZL) 22.49 C Jones (AUS) 22.82 J Kersten (AUS) 22.91

100m freestyle D Hunter (NZL) 49.49 (Oceania Rec) J Kersten 50.13 J Weir (NZL) 50.85

200m freestyle J Kersten (AUS) 1:51.45 T Wotton (AUS) 1:53.39 S Seghers (PNG) 1:53.64

400m freestyle W Robert (Cook Islands) 3:57.91 M Hyde (NZL) 3:58.29 M Petrides (Hawaii) 4:06.05

1500m freestyle W Robert (Cook Islands) 15:42.27 M Petrides (Hawaii) 16:22.19 T Balvert (NZL) 16:22.58

5km M Scott (NZL) L Colquhoun (AUS) W Roberts (Cook Islands)

10km J Brazier (AUS) 2:22.02 L Colquoun (AUS) 2:22.07 T Balvert (NZL) 2:23.04

50m backstroke Z Incerti (AUS) 25.91 R Pini (PNG) 26.43 B Main (NZL) 26.58

100m backstroke: Z Incerti (AUS) 54.94 J Cropp (NZL) 56.98 C Coetzee (NZL) 57.20

200m backstroke C Coetzee (NZL) 2:03.62 J Cropp (NZL) 2:05.10 M Petrides (Hawaii) 2:15.62

50m breaststroke B Schulte (Guam) 29.26 J Garrod (NZL) 29.32 M Malani (Fiji) 29.42

100m breaststroke J Garrod (NZL) 1:03.31 B Schulte (Guam) 1:03.46 N Zhu (AUS) 1:03.94

200m breaststroke Z Stubblety-Cook (AUS) 2;16.69 N Zhu (AUS) =2.17.13 J Rutter (NZL) =2:17.13

50m butterfly: C Jones (AUS) 24.27 R Pini (PNG) 24.45 D Hunter (NZL) 24.62

100m butterfly C Jones (AUS) 53.69 R Pini (PNG) 54.13 W Coetzee (NZL) 55.08

200m butterfly W Coetzee (NZL) 2:00.44 T Wotton (AUS) 2:01.43 D Van Der Star (NZL) 2:04.90

200m individual medley W Coetzee (NZL) 2:05.51 J Rutter (NZL) 2:05.89 T Mary (New Cal) 2:10.40

400m individual medley A Trembath (NZL) 4:32.82 B Gunn (NZL) 4:35.97 B Schuster (Samoa) 4:36.13

4x100m freestyle relay Australia 3:20.25 New Caledonia 3:26.73 Fiji 3:38.89

4x200m freestyle relay Australia 7:27.19 New Zealand 7:38.23 New Caledonia 7:54.07

 4x100m medley relay Australia 3:42.67 NZL 3:44.46 PNG 3:52.13

 WOMEN

50m freestyle G Fa’amausili (NZL) 25.60 N Ramsden (AUS) 25.96 H Lindsay (AUS) 26.25

100m freestyle H Gasson (NZL) 56.49 N Ramsden (AUS) =57.11 C Doyle (NZL) =57.11

200m freestyle: A Wildin-Snedden (AUS) 2:02.37 C Doyle (NZL) 2:02.96 Y Lee (NZL) 2:0.3.58

400m freestyle A Wildin-Snedden (AUS) 4:17.00 M King (NZL) 4:17.99 C Doyle (NZL) 4:21.07

 800m freestyle M King (NZL) 8:53.564 A Colombini (AUS) 9:00.97 N Lileikis (Hawaii) 9:03.00

5Km A Colombini (AUS) R Crisp (AUS) J Cropp (NZL)

10km A Colombini (AUS) 2:41.50 B Crisp (AUS) 2;42.27 S Gillespie (NZL) 2:42.28

50m backstroke G Fa’amausili (NZL) 29.19 A Duncan (AUS) 29.77 M Cornelissen (AUS) 30.09

100m backstroke: G Fa’amausili (NZL) 1:02.38 L Strickland (Samoa) 1:05.96 A Toven (New Caledonia) 1:06.71

200m backstroke A Paterson (NZL) 2:16.68 L Stickland (Samoa) 2:23.99 N Lileikis (Hawaii) 2:24.98

50m breaststroke B Ryan (NZL) 33.52 M Wind (Fiji) 33.78 B Cross (AUS) 33.92

100m breaststroke B Ryan (NZL) 1:11.71 B Cross (AUS) 1:11.90 E Eastwood (NZL) 1:14.61

200m breaststroke B Cross (AUS) 2:34.83 E Eastwood (NZL) 2:36.10 M McDonald (NZL) 2:37.13

50m butterfly H Gasson (NZL) 27.14 M Cornelissen (AUS) 27.47 A Duncan (AUS) 27.58

100m butterfly H Gasson (NZL) 59.91 A Stuart (AUS) 1:00.68 M Cornelissen (AUS) 1:01.28

200m butterfly A Stuart (AUS) 2:10.65 H Gasson (NZL) 2:12.67 K Svenson (AUS) 2:16.21

200m individual medley H Gasson (NZL) 2:16.95 B Cross (AUS) 2:18.94 H Lindsay (AUS) 2:19.84

400m Individual Medley A Wilden-Snedden (AUS) 4:49.84 B Cross (AUS) 4:54.64 Y Lee (5:05.38)

4x100m freestyle Australia 3:48.73 NZL 3:49.57 Fiji 3:58.60

4x200m freestyle New Zealand 8:17.78 Australia 8:23.56 New Caledonia 8:42.77

4x100m medley NZL 4:10.88 Australia 4:16.49 New Cal 4:30.23

MIXED

4x50m freestyle Australia 1:37.17 (Oceania Rec) New Zealand 1:38.92 Fiji 1:41.71

4x50m medley New Zealand 1:48.65 Fiji 1:53.48 PNG 1:53.86

4x100M freestyle New Zealand 3:36.62 Australia 3:38.62 FIJI 3:54.52

4x100m medley New Zealand 3:54.39 Australia 3:55.99 Hawaii 4:15.11