Swimming: Records fall but coach wants more

Otumoetai swim team, back, left to right, Thomas Chaney, Ruby Matthews, Joshua Pickett, Connie-Pearl Anderson. Front, George Culling, Rhianna Maxwell, Thomas Hacker. Absent, Isabella Akroyd and Rachel Mead.

Otumoetai Swimming Club coach Mike Lee is happy enough with the performance of his nine swimmers at the New Zealand Short Course Championships in Auckland last week.

The team returned home with eight medals but Lee has set new goals for the team to far exceed that haul at future meets.

"We need to swim faster. Regardless of how good we go, we just have to be faster. It is work-ons for the team over the next six months," Lee said.

"That is my challenge as a coach to help these people get better, instead of just how many medals did we get. Instead of eight I want 18 medals."

Joshua Pickett, 16, won the sole gold on the first day of the meet in the 100m breaststroke, and he added a silver medal in the 200m breaststroke. Both swims set Bay of Plenty records.

Ruby Matthews, 16, won the most individual medals, with five. She won four silvers, in the 16 year girls' 100 breaststroke (a new Bay of Plenty record), 100 butterfly, 200 fly and 400 individual medley.

Her medley time of 4m 57.72s wiped a remarkable 17 seconds off her personal best (PB). It was also a new Bay of Plenty record and qualified her for the Queensland Championships in Brisbane in December. She also qualified in the 200 fly.

"Ruby made huge improvements at the meet and had a very profitable meet," Lee said. "[With the IM record] she learned to take herself to a dark place she had never been to before and because of that her performance was quite outstanding.

"Josh got a good collection of medals but struggled with the fact we had a short 13 weeks turnaround from the long course nationals that affected kids at the meet across the board."

Isabella Akroyd, 13, was one of Otumoetai's youngest swimmers to attend. She cut seven seconds off her PB in the 400 freestyle to win a bronze medal and qualify for the Victorian age championships in Melbourne in December.

Thomas Chaney, 15, and George Culling, 15, swam in the Bay of Plenty 15 and under team in the 4x200 relay and finished fourth.

Chaney also set a new Bay of Plenty record in the 15 year boys' 100 fly and a qualifying time for the Victorian age group meet in the 200 fly.

New PBs were swum by Rachel Mead, George Culling, Connie-Pearl Anderson, while Thomas Hacker and Rhianna Maxwell came close to beating their PB times during the week.