Hazel Ouwehand celebrates breaking the New Zealand record in the 50m Butterfly at the 2024 NZ Swimming Championships in Hawkes Bay. (Credit BW Media). Photo: BW Media
Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand smashed a New Zealand butterfly record on day two of the national championships and is turning her sights on Olympic qualificiation.
The 24-year-old Phoenix Aquatics swimmer blitzed the field in her 50m butterfly heat in Hastings, becoming the first New Zealand woman to go under 26 seconds across the distance, flying home to finish in 25.88sec.
"It's great to get that one in the books," Ouwehand said.
"I knew I was going to do it this morning, I was thinking 25.9 but I'll take 25.88. I posted some great times at Auckland champs a month ago and I took a lot of confidence from them, it was a good mental gain and now I've got to back it up tomorrow."
With the 50m Butterfly not an Olympic event, Ouwehand will have her first shot at qualification for the Paris Games on Thursday when she contests the 100m butterfly.
World champion Erika Fairweather got her campaign underway in style in the 200m freestyle - an event in which she has already achieved Olympic qualification.
Despite that, she sailed under the qualifying time again, posting 1min 55.49sec.
"I'm stoked, any 1:55 swim is a good swim," she said.
"I knew the other girls were going to take it out from the start so to have them there pushing me on was really special."
Tokyo 2020 Olympian Lewis Clareburt was impressive in the 200m freestyle, pulling away in the second half of the race to record a personal best 1min 47.18sec - the fastest time swum in New Zealand in a decade.
"I'm really happy to do a personal best," Clareburt said.
"If I can do these ones right then my main events are going to be nice."
In the men's 100m backstroke, Commonwealth Games athlete Andrew Jeffcoat was just over half a second off the Olympic qualification time, finishing in 54.28sec.
He'll race again in the 200m Backstroke where he'll hope to crack the time required for Paris qualification.
It was a similar story in the women's 100m backstroke, where Rio 2016 Olympian Helena Gasson was just outside the time needed for Olympic qualification in 1:00.51.
The five-day championships has attracted 180 swimmers and is the final opportunity to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.