New Zealand swimmers strike double bronze in Glasgow pool

New Zealand's swimmers have continued their strong start to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, with Hazel Ouwehand and Erika Fairweather each claiming bronze medals in a thrilling morning of racing.Ouwehand, featuring in her first Commonwealth Games final, produced a nerveless performance to finish third in a frenetic women's 50m butterfly final, touching the wall in 25.76 seconds behind Australia's Alex Perkins and South Africa's Erin Gallagher.Just fractions of a second split the medallists, with all three swimmers recording times quicker than the gold medal-winning performance from the Birmingham Games four years ago.Ouwehand said she was pleased with how she executed her race."It's such a short race, there's very little room for error and it's just head down and go."Competing in her first Commonwealth Games final, Ouwehand admitted the achievement had yet to fully register."It feels like an empty ball bouncing around in [my head] at the moment, but give it a few minutes and it will sink in," she said when asked what was going through her mind after the race."I'm not necessarily in a rush to look at the scoreboard, because it's not going to change there either way. So as soon as I hit the wall I just took a few seconds to myself then I looked at the board and saw that third on there."Minutes earlier, Fairweather had backed up her silver medal-winning performance in the 400m freestyle by adding bronze in the women's 200m freestyle.Erika Fairweather won silver on day one of the Commonwealth Games.Quinn Rooney/Getty ImagesThe Dunedin swimmer clocked 1:55.24 to finish behind Australia's Mollie O'Callaghan (1:54.66) and Lani Pallister (1:55.01), the same swimmer who edged her out for gold in the 400m freestyle on the opening day of competition.After winning New Zealand's first medal of the Games with silver in her favoured 400m freestyle on Saturday, Fairweather had described the 200m as a far tougher challenge against a stacked field.Fairweather, who qualified fifth-fastest from the heats, was in the middle of the field at the halfway stage of the race, before producing a strong surge over the second half of the race.She joked she was feeling it after the race."It didn't feel great, but I'm really glad to get the job done," Fairweather said."A 200m medal was always going to be a stretch so I'm really happy to come away with it."Australia's dominance in the pool continued on day two, with O'Callaghan, Pallister and Perkins adding to the team's growing medal haul as the Australian national anthem became an increasingly familiar soundtrack around the Tollcross International Swimming Centre.New Zealand's Zoe Pederson also featured in the women's 50m butterfly final, finishing fifth in the high-quality sprint event.The double podium finish lifts New Zealand's tally to four medals after two days of swimming competition, following Fairweather's silver in the women's 400m freestyle and Lewis Clareburt's silver in the men's 200m individual medley.