The Otago swimmer took a mammoth 14 seconds off her personal best, finishing the 1500m freestyle final in 15 min 51.98 sec at the world short-course championships in Melbourne on Friday.
It helped her claim fifth place, 0.3 sec behind China’s Ke Zhang. Only 5sec separated second and fifth.
The race was Deans’ first 1500m freestyle under 16min and broke the Otago open record she set at the New Zealand short-course championships earlier this year.
During the race, she also broke her 800m freestyle personal best with her time of 8 min 26.14 sec.
In the final day of the world championships yesterday, Deans sliced 1 sec off her personal best in the 200m freestyle heat, finishing with a time of 1 min 57.93 sec.
She finished her heat in sixth place and 19th overall.
Fellow Neptune swimmer Luan Grobbelaar also finished his Melbourne championship strongly.
He took 0.5 sec off his personal best with his time of 4 min 9.98 sec in the 400m individual medley on Saturday.
He came fifth in his heat, and 13th overall, breaking the Otago open record he set at the New Zealand championships earlier this year.
Grobbelaar became the first Otago athlete to go under 4 min 10 sec in the 400m individual medley.
It has been an impressive world championships for Otago’s five swimmers, breaking nine Otago and seven New Zealand records.
