Growing depth key to national age group swimming
The growing depth of swim talent was a feature on the penultimate night of competition at the National Age Group Championships in Wellington tonight.
West Auckland Aquatics were the only club to achieve two wins at the Kilbirnie Aquatic Centre tonight, with all other winners coming from different clubs.
``It’s encouraging to see emerging talent from a number of smaller clubs and the spread is throughout the country,’’ Swimming New Zealand High Performance Director Clive Rushton said. ``It’s excellent to see that our development programmes are starting to see some fruition as we attempt to broaden the talent base.
``The greater our base, then the greater our talent pool and hopefully the opportunity to continue to improve at the highest level as we look to our vision of Beijing and beyond.’’
Wellington’s Georgia Hind added a sixth title with victory in the girls 800m freestyle, while Kurt Bassett (Mt Eden, Auckland) made it five with a win in the 15 years 200m freestyle.
Cameron Burrows (Howick Pakuranga) also recorded his fifth win in the 14 years division of the same event. He was locked in a brilliant battle won by Japan’s Kakeru Ikeda in 1:58.57, with Burrows 8/10ths of a second behind and Kozuaki Koyama (Japan) third one second behind the Kiwi.
Cara Baker (Kiwi West Manawatu) also added a fifth win in the 15 years 800m freestyle.
There were a number of clubs to record wins tonight including Julia Wright (Howick Pakuranga) in the 14 years 800m freestyle, Ben Start (West Auckland) in the 13 years 200m freestyle, Ashley Rupapera (Stratford) in the 13 years 100m breaststroke, Jamie Johns (West Auckland) in the 14 years. The 100m backstroke also featured a raft of different club winners with Jedon Harmer (Primo Sundevels, Napier) taking the 13 years, Mark Turner (Total Aquatics Sport, Mt Albert, Ak) 14 years and John Gatfield (Watties Swim City, Hutt Valley) the 15 years division.
Gatfield led home a quality field with the top three placegetters with Bassett second and Daniel Bell (Primo Sundevils) all going under the one minute mark.
The championships finish tomorrow. Full results www.swimmingnz.org.nz
