Swim Rotorua enjoyed a magnificent team performance at the New Zealand National Age Group Swimming Championships.
Nine athletes descended on Wellington determined to achieve the goal of being in the top 15 clubs. They managed with a superb haul of 10 medals and a final placing of 13th.
Bianca Donelley, 13, was in superlative form to dominate the freestyle races. She achieved the rare feat of winning the 50, 100, 200 and 400 metres events. Fresh from competing for New Zealand against at the recent Australian National Age Groups, Donelley started her tough campaign with an outstanding victory on the first night in the 200m freestyle. Executing a fine tactical race, she stormed home on the last lap to take the gold in a new Bay of Plenty record with a time of 2min08.63s. She backed that up in winning her signature event in the 100m freestyle to dip under the minute mark with a great time of 59.25. Her 50m free winning time of 27.33 was another Bay of Plenty record. Against tough opposition, Donelley prevailed in the 400m freestyle to take her fourth gold with a best time of 4min37s. Her final medal came in the 200m backstroke where she came from behind to take a well deserved bronze.
Paddy Baylis showed what a tenacious fighter he is to take home two bronze medals. He dropped his best time by six seconds to secure third spot in the boys 16 years 400 metres freestyle with a time of 4m10.62s. In the 1500 metres freestyle he led his 30 lap heat from start to finish to set a personal best time of 16m:37.92s.
Milla Theobald had an awesome week to win her first age group medal which came in the girls 13 years 800 metres freestyle. Theobald's time of 9 minutes 41.88 seconds was just inside the New Zealand Talent ID Squad. Theobald achieved other top 10 places in the 400m freestyle, 400m medley and the 200m butterfly to secure valuable team points. Competing in the same age group was 12-year-old Emily Spear who excelled in the freestyle events. Spear did well to take fifth place in both the 400m and 800m freestyle with the latter in a best time of 9m53.52s.
David Boles, 15, produced a stunning series of performances on the last day to grab the bronze medal in the 1500m freestyle. He took almost 40 seconds off his best time to go 17m15.79s. Boles also made several finals including 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke, 400m freestyle and 400m medley and led off the Bay of Plenty medley relay which took a silver medal.
Jack Weston picked up a couple of fourth places in his favoured breaststroke events. These came in the 100m and 200m events, with his 100m time establishing a new Bay of Plenty record. He also took 9th place in the 50 metre breaststroke dash. William Spear competed in the tough 17-18 years age group with his best performances coming in the 100m butterfly and 400m medley events, where he recorded best times of 1 minute 02.21 and 5 minutes 03.28 seconds respectively.
Damon Cowie and James Baldwin, both 14 years old, made their national age group debut with some solid performances. Both made finals with Baldwin competing in the 50m freestyle, placing 8th, and Cowie coming 10th in the 50m and 100m breaststroke events.
Head Coach Alastair Johnson was understandably pleased with his young team.
"The team have done a great job. We achieved our target of top 15 which means that we have improved our national ranking each year since 2013," he said.
"It is great to see that almost half of the team won medals, plus getting two athletes achieving the Swimming New Zealand Talent ID squad is a real achievement. We currently have five athletes qualified to represent the AquaKnights team to compete in Australia later this year. Overall it has been a successful campaign for us."
