Ingram becomes seventh New Zealand swimmer to book Delhi 2010 berth

NEW DELHI, 9 April 2010: Olympian Melissa Ingram, who missed out on the world championships last year, qualified for the Commonwealth Games at the New Zealand Swimming Championships on Thursday. She was one of the three swimmers under the qualifying mark on the penultimate night of finals. Daniel Bell and Southland's Natalie Wiegersma qualified in their second events for Delhi 2010.

According to reports in the New Zealand media, Ingram won the women's 200m backstroke under the qualifying time at the Waitakere City West Wave Aquatics Centre in the Commonwealth Games trials. This brought the total to nine qualifying performances from seven swimmers with one day remaining.

Ingram went through the halfway point of the 200m backstroke in 1:03.88 before two 33 second laps helped her clock 2:10.73, nearly a second inside the qualifying mark and well clear of Penelope Marshall and Jessie Blundell.

“I definitely felt a few demons walking along the pool to the blocks tonight,” she said. “It was maybe not quite as fast on the back half than I would have liked but it is definitely my fastest swim in a fabric suit. It's a bit like starting again now to race without the suits. And most importantly I got the qualifying time. I am absolutely thrilled to get that out of the way.”

She set the tone for the night with Bell recording his second qualifying performance in winning the 100m backstroke in 54.40s, half a second under the qualifying time. He will also be able to swim the 50m backstroke in Delhi. “I would have liked to have gone half a second faster but it was still a pleasing performance,” he said after finishing clear of Gareth Kean and John Gatfield.

Wiegersma rounded off a brilliant championship with her second qualifying time in the 400m individual medley. She won in 4:41.15, nearly two seconds under the qualifying mark. She showed plenty of strength to power home in 31.40 seconds for the final 50m freestyle to win by 15 second from Grace Francis.

“We came here to get both qualifying times. My coach targeted the 400m individual medley and said that was where there is an opening at Commonwealth Games level,” Wiegersma said.