IN FORM: Natalie Wiegersma has a laugh.
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Southland's Natalie Wiegersma completed a gruelling schedule on day three of the New Zealand short course swimming championships in Wellington tonight.
The 21-year-old had her high hopes dashed when a shoulder injury forced her out of the team for the recent world championships, a key stepping stone to next year's London Olympics.
Wiegersma, coached by Jeremy Duncan, proved she is well and truly over the injury when she bagged two wins and a third placing in three straight finals at the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre tonight.
She won the 200m breaststroke, was third in the 100m butterfly and took out the 100m individual medley in a demanding night's race.
Wiegersma had to fight off a strong challenge from North Shore's Grace Francis to win the 200m breaststroke by .3sec, clocking 2min 27.65sec. She was edged by Samantha Lee (Capital) and Danielle Koni (Roskill) in the 100m butterfly, with .27sec separating the trio.
She again held off Francis to win the 100m individual medley in 1min 02.12sec to complete a successful and tiring evening.
It proved a night of close calls with the world championship pair of Penelope Marshall and Dylan Dunlop-Barrett both beaten by a finger-tip by Australians in the final of the 400m freestyle.
Marshall (HPC North Shore), part of the women's 4x200m freestyle team that qualified for the Olympics at the world championships last week, finished just .17sec behind Queensland's Amy Allen in a time of 4min 12.77sec.
Marshall has found the adjustment back into the short course competition difficult.
"All the training and the focus was on the world championships. Mentally I was so up for it but the minute it finished it was quite a downer. So to get off the plane and then fly immediately down here and pick it up as soon as we got home is quite hard."
Marshall said she is looking forward to a short break after the championships before the start of the build-up towards the London Olympics.
"I think we will get a few days off and then back into it. It's great though that all four of us in the freestyle relay train together, push each other every day in training and support each other."
The 22-year-old, coached by Mark Regan, plans to spend more time on backstroke to develop a second string to her bow.
"That's definitely the plan. I think it's good to have more than one event to fall back on."
Dunlop-Barrett (New Plymouth Aquatics), who is based on the Gold Coast, went stroke for stroke with experienced Queenslander Patrick Murphy but the Australian won in the final touch by .26sec in 3min 48.86sec.
Dunlop-Barrett has shown tremendous improvement this year under leading Australian coach Denis Cotterell, the former coach of the great Grand Hackett.
Brilliant Christchurch teenager Sophia Batchelor responded to the heavy competition schedule from coach Leanne Speechley with a superb performance in the 100m butterfly tonight.
She won her 16 years age group in 59.16sec, the only swimmer under the one minute mark, and only .14sec outside the national open record. She was second in the 100m individual medley.
Another world championship swimmer, Daniel Bell (North Shore) was only a second outside of his own national record to win the men's 100m individual medley in 54.60sec.
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