Lincoln Wearing Overtakes Sam Short's Aussie Boys' 14-Yr-Old SCM 800 Free Record (original) (raw)

2024 NEW ZEALAND SC CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2024 New Zealand Short Course Championships kicked off this week from Auckland with action taking place at the Sir Owen G. Glenn Aquatic Centre. Veterans and age groupers alike are vying for meet titles, with domestic Kiwi swimmers facing off against a visiting Australian contingent.

Right off the bat, 14-year-old Lincoln Wearing of Australia made some noise as he raced the men’s open 800m freestyle event.

Wearing of Chandler Swim Club clocked a blistering time of 8:04.72 in the event to snag silver behind winner Larn Hamblyn-Ough of the host nation who got to the wall first.

18-year-old Hamblyn-Ough registered a time of 7:57.76 as the winner while Joel Verran bagged the bronze in 8:12.97.

For youngster Wearing, it appears the 14-year-old’s effort established a new Australian National Age Record. His outing beat the previous best-ever for an Aussie at that age, a time of 8:07.43 Olympic finalist Sam Short put on the books in 2018.

Helena Gasson dove in for multiple events on day 2, coming up with gold in 2 events.

The 29-year-old Coast swimmer first won the women’s 100m back, clocking a time of 57.89. Splitting 11.88/13.03/13.36/13.43, Gasson’s effort fell just .20 shy of the 57.68 national record she put on the books last year.

She then got the wall first in the women’s 100m IM, turning in a time of 59.79 as the sole swimmer of the field to get under the minute barrier. Gasson owns the Kiwi standard with the 58.40 logged 2 years ago.

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Sam Short

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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