Swim Rotorua swimmers had a blast at the AquaKnights Junior Swimming Festival held at the Rotorua Aquatic Centre at the weekend.
The new event for swimmers aged 12 and under attracted a strong entry of more than 330 swimmers from the Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Hawkes Bay/Poverty Bay and Taranaki.
Leading the way with a triple gold medal haul was 11-year-old Theo Harvey.
Harveydominated the shorter freestyle events with stunning victories in the 50, 100 and 200 metres.
The pick of the bunch came in the 200m event where he dropped his personal best time by more than 5 seconds to go 2 minutes 26.93 seconds.
Showing his growing versatility, Harveyalso picked up a silver in the 400m medley and two bronzes in the 50m and 200m breaststroke.
Aaron Muchirahondo also topped the podium with a superb win in the 10 year boys' 50m backstroke with a swift time of 37.39 seconds. He almost made it a double with a silver medal in the 100m backstroke.
Western Heights' student Annelyse Cowie saw plenty of action to grab three silver medals.
These came in the girls 12 years 50m and 100m breaststroke and in the 400m medley.
Cowieshowed her growing stature as a force to be reckoned with a further four top five places in the freestyle and medley events.
Lina Stahlhut went home clutching four medals with a great show of aggressive racing.
She stormed home at the end of the 200m freestyle to take the silver medal with an eight second improvement to a new personal best time of 2 minutes 26.44 seconds. Her other medals were all bronzes and these came in the 200m medley and the 100m and 200m backstroke.
Sam Trass produced a gutsy effort in the boys 11 years 50m butterfly to snatch the silver medal in a great time of 37.03 seconds.
Team-mate Sam Baldwin had a busy programme, achieving personal bests in all his events. His best effort came in the boys 12 years 400m freestyle where he smashed his best time by 10 seconds to take it down to 4 minutes 44.66 seconds, and also beat the tough qualifying standard for the national age group championships.
Jasmine Hagan competed strongly in the girls 12 years age group and produced three top five places. Also chipping in with points and top 10 spots were Emma Balmer (11), Elise Cresswell (11) and Dion Wright (11).
Head coach Alastair Johnson was delighted with his young team.
"We did amazingly well to win a total of 17 medals and to take second place overall. I am extremely proud of the whole team," he said.
"We have been more focused on developing our teamwork strengths and this has certainly paid off. The whole team worked together and supported each other which spurred everyone on to make massive improvements. Our goal is now to maintain this momentum through to the end of the season."
The festival was one of four zonal meets held throughout the weekend, the others being in Timaru, Wellington and Auckland.
