Before discussing day two of the Commonwealth Games I must tell you about my daily trip from West Auckland to the Millennium Pool. I don’t know whether it’s because I’m a touch older than I was before I went overseas to coach but I’m pretty sure New Zealand drivers are traveling much faster and with far less patience than they used to. On the western motorway 100kms is a pedestrian crawl. They say speed kills and it seems to be working.

But back to the swimming. Clearly the highlight of day two was the bronze medal won by Lewis Clareburt in the 400IM. Without qualification of any sort it was a courageous and meritorious effort.

I have excluded Paralympic swimmers from this commentary. Not because they don’t count but simply because their events are new to the Games. Including their swims would distort the comparison with Games prior to Glasgow. Besides I think the Paralympic program in New Zealand is pretty well run. Their performances would put a false glow on the problems with Swimming New Zealand’s activities. In fact the way Swimming New Zealand claim credit for the feats of Sophie Pascoe and her mates is embarrassing.

I see in my email this morning a Swimming New Zealand report on the first day of swimming. Their headline says, “HUNTER AND PERRY SHINE IN SEMIS”. The truth is “shine” is probably a superlative too far. Hunter and Perry swam personal bests and are ranked 5^th and 6^th for the final. Clearly they are performing well. Perry especially is showing the benefit of a season of hard NCAA racing.

Swimming New Zealand’s reporting is so bloody amateur. See if you can pick the error in this sentence taken from their report. “Hunter, 23, recorded a personal best of 23.93s to break the 24 second barrier for the first time, Qualifying 5th fastest for Thursday’s final.”
No I’m not talking about the unnecessary capital beginning the word “Qualifying”. But you would think Swimming New Zealand would know the final was today. Today is Friday. Errors like that make you wonder about what else they have got wrong.

You would also be excused for thinking that their well-paid communication staff should know the difference between break and brake. Besides the last word relevant to the Australian women’s world record relay performance is the word brake. The brutal reality is that Cotterill’s Swimming New Zealand spent $14million on so-called high performance coaching and at the end of it the women’s relay team is 13 seconds behind the Australians. Thirteen seconds – behind by half the length of an Olympic pool. Cotterill has no excuse for that result.

There were six New Zealand swims in the morning heats on day two. One of the swims (16%) was a PB. Two swimmers progressed to the evening semi-finals. Lewis Clareburt and Bradlee Ashby qualified for the 400IM final. The 4×100 men’s relay also qualified to swim in the final. Matthew Stanley, did not progress to the 200 freestyle final.

There were eight New Zealand swims in the evening session. Five of these swims (62%) were PBs.

Lewis Clareburt swam a four second PB to win a bronze medal in the 400IM. The men’s 4×100 free relay placed 4th in the final in a slower than PB time.

For day two, combining both sessions, New Zealand swimmers completed 14 swims and recorded 6 PBs (42%).

The tables below show each swimmer’s personal best time and the time swum in the Games.

Matthew Stanley

Event	PB	Comm. Time	Place	PB/Not PB
200 Free	1:47.13	1:48.75	12th	No

Laticia-Leigh Transom

Event	PB	Comm. Time	Place	PB/Not PB
50 Free H	25.99	25.96	10th	PB
50 Free SF	25.96	25.95	12th	PB

Bobbi Gichard

Event	PB	Comm. Time	Place	PB/Not PB
100 Back H	1:00.82	1:01.33	10th	No
100 Back SF	1:00.82	1:01.75	12th	No

Lewis Clareburt

Event	PB	Comm. Time	Place	PB/Not PB
400 IM H	4:18.78	4:19.16	6th	No
400 IM F	4:18.78	4:14.42	3rd	PB

Bradlee Ashby

Event	PB	Comm. Time	Place	PB/Not PB
400 IM H	4:18.68	4:18.83	5th	No
400 IM F	4:18.68	4:18.61	5th	PB

Men’s 4×100 Free Relay

Event	PB	Comm. Time	Place	PB/Not PB
Heat	3:15.41	3:17.96	3rd	No
Final	3:15.41	3:16.60	4th	No

Daniel Hunter

Event	PB	Comm. Time	Place	PB/Not PB
50 Fly F	23.93	23.87	5th	PB

Samuel Perry

Event	PB	Comm. Time	Place	PB/Not PB
50 Fly F	23.99	23.96	6th	PB

Corey Main

Event	PB	Comm. Time	Place	PB/Not PB
100 Back F	53.99	54.88	7th	No

New Zealand’s performance in the first two days of competition is summarized in the table below. The table also compares where New Zealand is at compared to the Swimwatch predictions made prior to the Games.

Day	Swims	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Finals	PBs	PB %
1	14	0	0	0	0	5	35%
2	14	0	0	1	6	6	42%
3
4
5
6
Total	28	0	0	1	6	11	39%
Prediction	na	0	1	2	15	na	na