In a rare achievement, two NZ swimmers will compete in the same butterfly event in next week's world swimming champs in Japan. Dave Crampton talks to the pair.
Olympian Helena Gasson and national record-holder Hazel Ouwehand have qualified for this month’s world swimming championships in the same 50m butterfly sprint event, each qualifying in NZ Open record times.
It's understood to be the first time two New Zealand women have met qualifying standards in the same 50m sprint event in any stroke for the same senior pinnacle swimming championship.
“It’s a long time since we’ve had two strong women sprinting butterfly,” Ouwehand says.
Both have coaches who have coached internationally. Gasson’s coach and partner, Michael Weston, is a current New Zealand coach and was an assistant at the International Swimming League. Ouwehand’s coach since 2019, David Lyles, has coached NZ, Great Britain, and Chinese teams. Ouwehand says he’s “tough but fair”.
The championships start on July 23 in Fukuoka, Japan; the 50m butterfly is five days later.
It could be the last time Gasson, 28, swims the 50m butterfly internationally as it’s not her focus for next year’s Paris Olympics.
But for Ouwehand, 23, Fukuoka will be her first long course world championships.
At trials in April, Ouwehand not only qualified in her first FINA A standard; she took her first national open title, and her time of 26.12 seconds set her first NZ Open record in a time that would have been fourth at last year’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
“I guess you could say I got the triple crown on that one,” she says. “It was a great swim, I just gave it hell and gave it everything I had and thankfully that was enough.”
Ouwehand had never previously set a national record in an Olympic-sized pool, even at age-group level. She scratched from the 100m backstroke final at trials to focus on the butterfly event.
Clearly, that paid off.
Gaining the record at the trials was a bonus, but qualifying was no surprise.
“That was the plan. What else are you there for? It’s awesome to get that record, too. It’s the first I’ve ever had and hopefully it’s the first of many.”
Gasson has been breaking open records regularly. She holds every butterfly, backstroke and individual medley record in the short course (25m) pool, aside from 200m backstroke. She also holds the 100m and 200m long course butterfly records, set when qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
She met the qualifying standard in the 200m medley for Birmingham but was second at the 2023 trials in the 50m butterfly, outside the qualifying standard.
However, she swam the 50m butterfly final as a second swim in Birmingham for seventh, and as her time was inside the qualifying standard for Fukuoka, selectors considered it. She also set a NZ open record - the record Ouwehand later broke.
Not everybody knew that Gasson has been recovering from a shoulder injury which occurred when training after being inactive when pools were closed for eight weeks during the 2020 lockdown. She had three medical procedures earlier this year which affected her trials performances but hopes to bounce back for Fukuoka.
“In the first session out of lockdown I tore my shoulder, because of the insane Covid protocols. I’m 80 percent pain free now - I hope I'll race the way I’ve been training,” she says.
Selectors considered her Birmingham time under extenuating circumstances, provided she clocked at least 26.70 seconds at an approved competition this year.
She did, clocking 26.50 seconds at the trials, just 0.18 seconds off the initial standard. When she saw her time, she knew she had booked her ticket to Fukuoka, but her selection was not announced until June.
“I had to do the time by the end of June, but I knew since April that I was on the team,” she says.
Had Gasson not qualified in the 200m individual medley for the Commonwealth Games, she would not be going to Fukuoka, as she could not have set the butterfly standard in Birmingham.
Ouwehand made her Aquablack debut in Birmingham, selected as a swimmer who could potentially get top six in the 50m butterfly. Getting Covid-19 six weeks before was a significant setback, and she did not make the final. The qualifying standard was tough; not even Birmingham winner Emma McKeon, Australia’s most decorated Olympian, went under it.
“The qualifying time was definitely not realistic,” Gasson says. “It’s not an Olympic qualifying event, but it has allowed me to go through my rehab.”
Had the pair been from many other countries, they would have had to qualify in another event to swim the 50m butterfly at a world championship, as stroke sprint events there are not qualifying events.
As well as putting more than 20 hours at the pool each week, Ouwehand works 25 hours a week as an accountant at Baker, Tilly, Staples, Rodway in central Auckland. She is also studying for her professional accountancy certification to practise.
“It’s definitely not for the faint hearted – nor is swimming on its own,” Ouwehand says. “My social life is very limited.”
World championships are stepping-stones towards the tougher Olympic qualification. Ouwehand must break Gasson’s NZ record by half a second to qualify for the 100m butterfly for Paris to also swim the 50m event.
Gasson is not swimming the 100m butterfly at Fukuoka; her focus will be on the 100m backstroke where she is hoping to qualify for the 2024 Doha world championships in February as a stepping-stone to Paris. If she doesn’t, she won’t trial in New Zealand.
“I’ve had enough of that pressure – I want to meet the 100m time at the pinnacle meets, not at trials,” she says. “If I race the way I’ve trained, there shouldn’t be an issue, but after Fukuoka, the 50m butterfly is a finished event for me.”
Ouwehand may do the opposite. She is undecided as to whether she will go to Doha; she may decide to train and focus through to the April trials for Paris. She will need to swim faster than the sixth fastest did at Birmingham to qualify for Paris in the 100m butterfly. Gasson will have to swim faster than fourth in backstroke.
It’s a tough ask – other than para-swimmers, only four NZ females have placed top eight in each of butterfly or backstroke at a senior pinnacle swimming competition in the past 20 years.
While Gasson was one of them, that was in a 50m event.
The 100m events are the target for Paris.
