McMath heads top effort at SI champs

The Blenheim Swimming Club punched well above its weight at the South Island Championships which ended in Dunedin on Monday, placing fourth of the 19 clubs with 10 or fewer swimmers competing.

As has been the case in recent years, Sally McMath returned the club’s strongest showings, reaching finals in eight of her nine events. There were vast improvements from Tallara Daldorf, 15, and Kazuki Jahana, 14, while Sophie Woodhouse, 14, and Anton Horton, 17, completed the Blenheim team and contributed to the club’s 164-point haul.

At 17, McMath was competing in the open age group against the best female swimmers in the South Island. The Marlborough Girls’ College year-13 student did not set any personal bests, hampered by a disrupted buildup due to injuries and illness, but was still able to bag two medals.

She grabbed silver in the 15 and over 200m backstroke, clocking a time of two minutes 23.42 seconds, and a bronze in the 100m equivalent, in 1:07.48. She placed fourth in two individual medley finals and the 100m butterfly.

McMath has plenty of experience at big meets, while many of her team-mates were relatively new to such occasions, but performed well.

Daldorf took home silver in the 15 and over 100m breaststroke, lopping 4.31 seconds from her previous personal best when she stopped the clock at 1:22.90. A bronze in the 200m version of the same discipline was gained when she again whacked more than four seconds off her PB. Daldorf also placed fourth in the 50m breaststroke, again a PB.

Horton scored silver in the male 17 and over 50m backstroke, narrowly bettering his PB, and took 1.47 seconds off his best mark in the 200m backstroke, good enough for third place.

Jahana finished just outside the medals but made some big improvements in his time, including nearly 11 seconds in his 200m butterfly and 9.21 seconds in his 400m individual medley.

Woodhouse reached finals in two female 12-14 year-olds’ races, the 200m breaststroke and 400m individual medley.

Nelson-Marlborough finished third of the four regions taking part in the three-day meet. Their average score of 27.43 points per swimmer was behind hosts Otago on 35.62 and Canterbury-West Coast on 29.82, but ahead of Southland with 24.

Club standings were ranked on total points and Blenheim, with five swimmers, finished fourth among clubs with 10 or fewer swimmers. That was a considerable achievement, given all three clubs ahead of them had 10 swimmers competing.