With a ginger tinge to a goatee beard, leading kiwi swimmer Glenn Snyders looks more like a leprechaun than an Olympic aspirant. But the relaxed Snyders wont need the luck of the Irish to prosper in the Olympic Swim Trials starting in Auckland this weekend. The 24 year old, who has already gone under the qualifying standards last year, believes that it has allowed him to focus purely on the quality of his performances. The State New Zealand Swimming Championships, which double as the Olympic Trials, begin at the West Wave Aquatic Centre in Henderson on Sunday through to the following Friday when the team for London will be named. In recent times qualifying has been limited to the championship finals, but was expanded for London, beginning from last years world championships in Shanghai and incorporating officially sanctioned FINA events up to and including the trials. Snyders went under the qualifying mark in the 100m breaststroke by nearly a second with his 59.94 effort in the heats in Shanghai, while he is a second under the 200m breaststroke on his way to a gold medal at the World University Games. That placed the Mark Regan coached swimmer seventh in the world over 100m in 2011 and a corrected 12th in the 200m. With the benefit of those times under his belt, Snyders reckons he is ready to swim fast at the Trials. The build-up has gone really well. It feels like weve been training for a long time and I am definitely ready to race. Preparation during taper has been going really well and I cant wait for Sunday, Snyders said. Having gone under the qualifying time has taken a bit of pressure off. I am not putting any expectation on myself for this meet. I know I am going to swim good. It all comes down to whether I keep my head, put the plans together and do the processes right. I am going to use this as race practice for London, to do pretty much what I will be doing in London. I will turn up to the pool and prepare next week and visualise as if it is London. Having the pressure taken off by qualifying already is definitely helpful. I want to swim these trials and swim them well. We have had a full taper so I am prepared to swim fast. But I want to look past these trials, look towards London. Whatever I dont do right here, I get ready fix it and focus on London. Four swimmers Snyders, Melissa Ingram, Gareth Kean and Lauren Boyle went under the qualifying times at the world championships and world university games, along with the womens 4x200m freestyle relay which placed eighth at Shanghai. The heats begin at 10am with finals from 6.30pm.
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