Payne makes Olympics

Local swimmer Tepaia Payne set a new national swim record for the Cook Islands in the 50 metre freestyle at the 2012 Oceania Championships held last week in Noumea, New Caledonia, earning himself a spot at the London Olympics.

The New Caledonia swim meet was the last official qualifying event for all Oceania swimmers trying to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

Payne’s time of 25.25 set in the heats secured his placing in the ‘B finals’ of the 50 metre freestyle race and was his fastest time of the day slashing 1.75 seconds off his previous time of 26.5 set in Florida last month.

This is a great result for Payne after four months of hard training at the prestigious Bolles Academy in Florida, USA.

Payne has qualified under the Olympic Universality criteria where over 257 international swimmers that had not achieved Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT) or an Olympic Selection Time (OST) in their respective events competed to fill the final 150 places (75 male and 75 female) in accordance with the best performances determined by the FINA points table.

Payne also set a new national record in the 100 metre freestyle race with a time of 56.95.

Australia topped the medal table swimming away with the most medals, 35 of the championships 40 swimming events, including all of the women’s events.

The Cook Islands Aquatics Federation is ecstatic with Payne’s results as it has been a very long development campaign since early 2010 and especially after a hectic and nail-biting last few months.

The next step for Payne is to continue with his training and competition preparations for London. He now joins fellow swimmer Celeste Brown as Team Cook Islands athletes to the Olympics.

Brown will be competing in the 50 metre freestyle event.

CIAF would like to thank and acknowledge the efforts of CISNOC including secretary general Rosie Blake, Siniva Marsters and Lydia Sjip with the NAP 2012 and NOC special assistance grant funding, as well as Payne’s parents Bryn and Kate Payne for their support.