Swimmers make waves in Australia
‘‘It felt really good because all of the hard work I put in before I went paid off.’’
Three young Pukekohe swimmers have impressed in age group competition across the Tasman.
Pukekohe Swimming Club members Kiana Swain, Tavarnya Howe and Zac Dell were selected to represent New Zealand at the 2017 Georgina Hope Foundation Australian Age Swimming Championships in Brisbane.
Thousands of talented swimmers across the Pacific region were at the competition in April held at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre.
A total of 24 swimmers were selected to represent New Zealand at the championships, and a record haul of 18 medals were won by the New Zealand team.
Kiana Swain, 15, finished the competition with two bronze medals in the Girls 15 year old 100 and 200 metre butterfly.
Zac Dell, 16, also returned home with a medal, claiming silver in the Boys 16 year old 100 metre backstroke.
Tavarnya Howe competed in the Girls 14 year old 100 and 200 metre backstroke finishing 6th and 7th in the finals of those events.
Kiana said it was a great feeling to receive her medal on the podium.
‘‘It felt really good because all of the hard work I put in before I went paid off - and it was just cool because it was my first international medal.’’
Even though Tavarnya didn’t quite reach her goal of winning a medal, she said she would grow from this competition.
’’It’s like a learning curve, so it’s all about the experience so I’m gonna learn some new things from the meet.’’
Compared to the Australian State Teams Short Course Championships the group attended last year, Zac said the New Zealand team had more swimmers and coaching staff this time around.
‘‘We got to learn new things from different people.’’
He said it was also good to swim at an international longcourse competition.
‘‘I was going for the experience, because it was a lot different competition to the short course champs that I went to last year.’’
All three swimmers’ next goal was to make the New Zealand squad for the 2018 Junior Pan Pacific Championships to be held in Japan.