Bell becomes fourth New Zealand swimmer to qualify for Delhi 2010

New Zealand Olympic teenagers back as Daniel Bell sounded a warning to his rivals after qualifying for the Commonwealth Games tournament in New Zealand in Auckland swimming on Wednesday.

According to media reports in New Zealand, Bell qualified in the 200m backstroke by a clock a personal best of 1:58.96 to go with the qualifying mark for the Games for half a second. It raised the number of qualifying for the Games of New Zealand after two days of the championships to four.

Bell led from the start but was postponed until the end by former national record holder Gareth Kean, the couple goes through the midpoint in 57 seconds when Bell was 4/10ths of a second Kurt Bassett New Zealand registration.

"I'm very happy with that. The 200 is not my main race, so to get a qualifying time in which alleviates a lot of pressure for the 100. Now I'm looking forward and upward, "said Bell." I will go back and look at the divisions, but obviously it is the best time I've done it before and it's been two years since I've done this event seriously. I've only been training for this for five months, so I'm really pleased.

"It's a real confidence boost before the Commonwealth Games. All the world's largest backstrokers are now swimming the 200 meters. Help with some back-end resistance to 100 meters. Hopefully now that can produce a best time in the 100 meters and given some of the top backstrokers in the world a little scary. "

Emily Thomas and Glenn Snyders missed qualifying by just fractions behind the goal times in the 100m breaststroke and 200 men respectively. Thomas won the 100 backstroke in 1:01.51, a fifth of a second off the qualifying time for Delhi. Snyders won the 200 meters breaststroke in 2:13.55 seconds, 13/100ths of a second qualifying mark.

Snyders looked set to improve the level of qualification in the 150-meter mark, but missed a fraction of going home. "I was where I wanted to be, but should have been able to bring home. And I had slipped at the end instead of taking that extra hit that has cost me," he said.