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Daniel Bell - Source: Photosport -
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Four New Zealand swimmers dipped under the qualifying times for next year's Commonwealth Games at the Queensland state championships in Brisbane on Sunday.
The North Shore quartet of Melissa Ingram, Andrew McMillan, Daniel Bell and Emily Thomas all went under the qualifying standard in the morning heats.
Ingram became the first New Zealand woman under the two-minute barrier in the 200m freestyle.
She set a national record in clocking 1min 59.67sec, nearly half a second under Helen Norfolk's previous record, and 2/10ths under the Commonwealth Games standard.
McMillan also topped qualifiers in the men's 200m freestyle in 1min 48.30sec, half a second under the time for New Delhi.
Bell looked impressive as he clocked 54.53sec to be fastest in the heats of the 100m backstroke, while Thomas was fastest in the women's 100m backstroke heats when clocking 1min 00.77sec, with both swims dipping under the Games times.
Swimmers can only achieve qualification for the Commonwealth Games if they better the times in a final at the official trials in April, but the performances at this stage of the season has delighted Swimming New Zealand high performance director Jan Cameron.
"It was a great start to the meet and this group were all very impressive," Cameron said.
"It should be pointed out that they were all wearing the suits that are currently FINA legal but will be outlawed next month.
"However, it has given us an important comparison of times against what they achieved at the world championships earlier in the year. The good news is that some are swimming faster in some cases than in Rome, and certainly all are swimming faster than they were at this stage of their build-up last year."
Among New Zealanders to advance to the final are Ingram, McMillan, Bell, Thomas, Michael Jack, Glenn Snyders , Jessie Blundell, Natalie Wiegersma and Corney Swanepoel.
