Kiwi swim talent on the improve say Japanese
New Zealand’s burgeoning young swim talent is on the rise according to the visiting Japanese swim team at the National Age Group Championships that finished in Wellington tonight.
The Japanese, who have been sending age group national teams to the meet for several years, believe the standard of the New Zealand swimmers has improved markedly across the board in the last two to three years.
Swimming New Zealand High Performance Director Clive Rushton said the Japan team coaches were all impressed with the improved performance from the Kiwis.
``Perhaps in the past we would have one or two top swimmers who would be breaking the records,’’ Rushton said. ``Now we are seeing a lot of swimmers who are competitive across the board.
``In years gone by the Japanese would really dominate these championships but now they have commented that the New Zealanders are winning most of the key contests and this is over a number of disciplines. It’s very encouraging.’’
Wellington’s Georgia Hinds (Capital) brought her tally to seven wins after taking the 200m butterfly for 13 years and under, although a record eighth win was thwarted in the 200m individual medley by Stratford’s Ashley Rupapera who won two titles tonight. She won the medley in 2:26.92 with Hinds less than 2/10ths of a second behind in an outstanding race and took out the 50m freestyle.
There were four double winners on the final night including Rupapera, Raumati’s Shane Patience, West Auckland’s Benjamin Stark and Palmerston North’s Cara Baker.
Patience took out the boys 15 years 1500m freestyle in 16:00.81 in an outstanding duel with Japan’s Yuta Kasuga with only 4/10ths of a second separating the pair. He followed with another win in the 100m butterfly.
Baker took her tally to seven wins with victories in the 15 years 200m individual medley and the 50m freestyle where she dead-heated with Emma Hunter (Howick Pakuranga).
Stark grabbed his double in the boys 13 years 100m breaststroke in 1:12.73 and the 50m freestyle in 26.04.
Cameron Burrows (Howick Pakuranga) took his total to six wins with victory in the 14 years 100m butterfly. The other winners tonight included Sam Wright (Wharenui), Dillon Dunlop-Barrett (Bell Block), Sasha Smith (Southland), Abby Shaw (Aquagym), Grant Davis (Metro), Nic McGill (Hamilton), Jamie Johns (West Auckland), Nielsen Varoy (Parnell), Orinoco Fa'aumasili-Banse (Mt Eden), Penny Hayes (Aquagym) and Adam McDonald (Southland).
Full results: www.swimmingnz.org.nz
For further information:
Ian Hepenstall, Sports Media NZ, Tel 021 613181, E: ianhep@xtra.co.nz
