Swimming: Greerton athletes perform admirably

FOUR OF THE BEST: Connor Farrell set four personal bests at the annual BOP Age Group Meet.PHOTO/FILE

Ideal conditions greeted swimmers at the annual BOP Age Group Meet held outdoors in Rotorua's 50m swimming pool during the weekend, which meant sunscreen was the order of the day as swimmers battled it out for honours.

A team of 22 Greerton athletes performed admirably with many chasing national qualifying times as well as personal bests (PB).

Most successful was Connor Farrell, 11, who set four personal bests in winning his four races, and ensured he has a busy quota of events for the upcoming NZ Junior championships in Wellington. Farrell added the 200m IM to his programme, with a strong 3:02.27, four seconds under the national qualifying time. Fellow 11-year-old Jess Martin matched Farrell's four PBs as did Ella Browne, 13.

Stacey Muir, 15, won the 200m butterfly to qualify for the age group national championship. She paced herself expertly in the gruelling event, touching in a personal best 2:36.92.

Another national qualifier was Libby O'Toole, who pulled out all stops in the 100m freestyle and showed the benefits of some solid lead-up training swimming a 2-second PB in the process.

Keeley Johns, 15, had a busy weekend winning four events, with the pick of those being her 400m freestyle win along with the 3:08.20 200m breaststroke.

National freestyle title holder Libby Bradley, 14, added a couple of strings to her bow by targeting her less-favoured breaststroke events. She took a 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the 200m, 50m and 100m events, with the latter qualifying her for the national age group championships. With a strong breaststroke to her talents, Bradley is likely to be a force to be reckoned with in individual medley events as well.

Mia Pugh, 12, highlighted the fine lines drawn by the stopwatch, missing the national 50m butterfly time by 0.05 seconds on Saturday and going under the 50m backstroke time by the same margin on the Sunday.

The national champion Greerton girls' relay squad showed their expertise by winning the 400m freestyle relay and the 400m medley relay. In the medley event they proved their depth by sweeping the podium ahead of a gallant Rotorua team.

The tables were turned in the boys medley relay with the hosts beating the Greerton team into third place.

The team remains in Rotorua until Friday as they undertake a training camp in preparation for the NZ Championships.