Erika Fairweather of New Zealand Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Erika Fairweather will spearhead an eight-strong New Zealand swimming team to compete at next years world aquatics championships in Doha.
The squad was unveiled after the three-day national trials in Auckland finished on Sunday.
Reigning world championship bronze medallist Fairweather, 19, will contest the women's 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle at the global meet in February, as well as the 4x200m freestyle relay.
Lewis Clareburt will swim in the 200m and 400m individual medley while Andrew Jeffcoat will contest the 100m backstroke - an event in which he placed 13th at this year's world championships.
It'll be a busy meet for Eve Thomas (Coast) who's been selected in the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle as well as the 4x200m freestyle relay. She'll be joined by Caitlin Deans in the 1500m freestyle.
Rounding out the squad are Cameron Gray (100m freestyle), Summer Osborne and Laticia-Leigh Transom (both 4x200m freestyle relay).
Swimming NZ Olympic programme lead Gary Francis said the selection showed swimming is in good heart at the top level.
"Swimmer for swimmer, this will be one of the strongest squads we've taken away in a long time," Francis said.
"Everyone in this team will have ambitions to make semis and finals in Doha and we're really looking forward to the opportunity to test ourselves against the best in the world."
Tokyo Olympian Thomas was a standout performer in the final session, smashing the women's 800m freestyle qualification time by more than seven seconds, finishing in 8min 30.41sec.
Just behind Thomas was Deans, who also went under the qualification time in 8:36.95.
Two-time Commonwealth Games champion Clareburt went under the qualification mark in a second world championships event, clocking 1:598.20 in the 200m individual medley.
"That time isn't crazy competitive internationally but I'm really happy to just go under that qualification mark given it's been a busy few weeks for me," said Clareburt, who has moved his training base from Wellington to Auckland.
