Swim Zoners fly to butterfly medals
Lower Hutt’s Swim Zone Racing earned several podium finishes at the National Age Group swimming championships at the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre earlier this month.
The champs showcased the country’s top swimmers aged 12-18.
In a surprise, Phoebe McKnight, 13, took away her first swimming medal – a bronze in the 200m butterfly – having never medalled at regional level.
It was three more medals for Ruby Heath, 15, after two last year. She got silvers in the 100m and 200m butterfly, and a bronze in the 400m freestyle. It was her personal best (pb) times that particularly pleased her. ‘‘Every race except one was a pb.’’
Lucy England, 14, picked up her first medals at this level, a bronze in the 100m butterfly, and a silver in the 200m event. Seeded in the bottom of half of the top 10, she swam a five second pb in one heat, and improved in both finals.
‘‘I‘ve never done that before,’’ she said. ‘‘I got such a big pb in the 200m heat, I didn’t think I’d pb in the final. I was a bit surprised.’’
‘‘I was sixth going into the heat and third going into the final, and I thought I’m not going to medal.’’
Chesley Edwards, 13, set the pool alight with a haul of gold medals. The greater Wellington region’s swimmers got 10 golds between them; Edwards got half of them – all four freestyle events, including the 200m event that she got a bronze at last month’s Australian Age grade champs – and the 50m butterfly. She also got bronzes in the 100m butterfly and 50m backstroke.
‘‘I felt heaps of pressure after getting bronze in the 200 freestyle– and I wasn’t expecting a backstroke medal,’’ she said.
Swimzone Coach Frank Tourelle was pleased Edwards moved up a notch in some events after swimming in Australia, and praised England’s progress on her previous times.
‘‘She understands the process by which we want her to race – she was able to believe in that, execute the plan and got good result.’’
Both Heath and Edwards were presented with $2500 scholarships from Wellington High Performance Aquatics on May 18. The money will go towards travel to the Queensland champs in December.
Swimzone was placed 10th overall out of 72 clubs nationwide.