Membership

Australian Age Group Championships - Day 4 Wrap

Waikato swimmer Bradlee Ashby swam to a gold medal on the fourth day of finals at the Australian Age Championships in Adelaide last night.

The 15 year old from Hamilton won the 400m individual medley, after qualifying fastest in the morning heats.

Ashby, coached by John Pike, clocked 4:34.04 to grab his second medal of the meet with a personal best of more than three seconds. His time was just outside the long standing national age record held by the great Danyon Loader.

It was one of six medals for New Zealand swimmers last night, which brought their tally to 19 in four days, with 15 swimmers qualifying for day four finals.

The other medals went to the Howick Pakuranga trio of Corey Main, Jeffrey Arona-Tuifana’e and his younger brother Bradley Arona-Waqanivavalagi, Auckland’s Michael Mincham (Waterhole) and Christchurch’s Abbie Johnston (AquaGym).

Here’s a wrap of how the finalists on the Virtual New Zealand Swim Team performed on day four:

Bradlee Ashby (Hamilton), coached by John Pike: 15 year boys 400 individual medley.  Ranked 1st going into competition – placed 1st in finals with a 3s PB of 4:34.04.  Just outside NZR 4:32.96 held by Danyon Loader.

Corey Main (Howick Pakuranga), coached by Gary Hollywood: 16 year boys 200 freestyle.  Ranked 2nd going into competition – placed 2nd in finals with 1:52.04 with a new NZ Age Group Record.

Bradley Arona-Waqanivavalagi (Howick Pakuranga), coached by Jana Korbasova: 14 year boys 100 breaststroke.  Ranked 1st going into competition – placed 2nd in finals with 1:09.72.

Jeffrey Arona-Tuifana’e (Howick Pakuranga), coached by Gary Hollywood: 16 year boys 200 breaststroke.  Ranked 3rd going into competition – placed 3rd in finals just 0.08s off the NZR record held by Glenn Snyders with a final time of 2:20.89.

Hayden Church (Howick Pakuranga), coached by Jana Korbasova: 12-13 year boys 100 freestyle.  Ranked 3rd going into competition – placed 4th in finals with a .6s PB time of 55.56s, just .2s off the NZR record held by Corey Main (55.36).

Alex Hancock (Howick Pakuranga), coached by Gary Hollywood: 17-18 year boys 100 butterfly.  Ranked 3rd going into competition – placed 7th in finals with 55.87 just .15s over his PB.

Naomi Smit (Sundevils), coached by Andy McLay: 14 year girls 50 freestyle.  Ranked 2nd going into competition – placed 7th in finals with 26.84. .

Max Polianski  (United), coached by Igor Polianski: 14 year boys 100 breaststroke.  Ranked 10th going into competition – took 1.7s off PB to place 8th in finals with 1:10.82.

Georgia Marris (United), coached by Igor Polianski: 14 year girls 400 Fr.  Ranked 11th going into competition – placed 10th in finals with 4:33.70.

The best of the other New Zealand performers on day four included:

Michael Mincham (Waterhole), coached by Gwen Ryan: 14 year boys 400 freestyle.  Ranked 5th going into competition – placed 2nd in finals with a new NZ Age Group Record of 4:03.94.

Abbie Johnston (AquaGym), coached by Leanne Speechley: 14 year girls 100 breaststroke.  Ranked 2nd going into competition – placed 3rd in finals with 1:12.80.  Went a PB in heats (1:12.48).

Julian Weir (Stratford), coached by Clive Wheeler: 15 year boys 100 backstroke.  Ranked 6th going into competition – placed 4th in finals narrowly missing out on the bronze medal.  Broke 1min for the first time with a new PB of 59.55.

Wilrich Coetzee (Coast), coached by Mihai Mandache: 12-13 year boys 200 butterfly.  Ranked 7th going into competition – placed 5th in finals with a 5s PB of 2:14.85 and a new NZ Age Group Record.

Cameron Jones (Capital), coached by Luke Clark: 14 year boys 50 freestyle.  Ranked 3rd going into competition – placed 8th in finals with 25.09. 

Bianca Rowley (Coast), coached by Mihai Mandache: 17-18 year girls 200 individual medley.  Ranked 15th going into competition – placed 10th in finals with 2:26.40.