New Zealand’s swimmers have claimed two medals on day two in the pool at the Trinbago 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games.
Swimming in the 400m Individual Medley, Danielle Asiata swam a well measured race to pick up silver.
The Auckland swimmer sat in second for much of the 400m, making a break for it in the last 50 to almost take the gold.
Asiata clocked a time of 4:58.00s, just 0.32s behind Northern Ireland’s Grace Davison. Holly Marshall from Wales rounded out the podium in third.
“I just went into autopilot as soon as I hit the water,” said Asiata.
“I just followed the steps my coach and I had been prepping and on that last lap really gave it everything to bring it home.
“To be taking a medal back to New Zealand is amazing, I’m over the moon, I didn’t expect it and just want to say a huge thanks to all my supporters.”
Caleb Carlisle then picked up the second medal of the day for the Kiwis, winning bronze in the 50m breaststroke.
The Hawkes Bay swimmer keeping up the tempo in a fast paced final, touching the wall in 29.24s, to finish third behind England’s Oscar Bilbao who won gold, and Jersey’s Filip Nowacki in silver.
“A 50 is always a bit of a splash and dash, you just put your head down, go hard, and focus on the finish,” said Carlisle.
“I felt like I was flying through the water today and I’m so stoked to win bronze, this is the first international medal for me and it’s just the start of my international career.”
Jasper Cornish, Amelia Bray, Kevin Zhang and the mixed 4x200m freestyle relay team also made finals.
Bray was unable to repeat her medal winning performance from yesterday, placing 8th in the 100m Freestyle final. In the men’s version of the same event Zhang placed 7th while Cornish placed 6th in the 50m Backstroke final. The New Zealand relay team placed 5th in the final race of the day.
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