Jayden Bryant, Alonso Fernandez Rodriguez (coach), Paige Franklin and Lucas Perceval.
Jayden Bryant, Alonso Fernandez Rodriguez (coach), Paige Franklin and Lucas Perceval.
Central Hawke’s Bay Swim Club members Lucas Perceval and Paige Franklin competed at the New Zealand Swimming Championships at the Hastings Regional Aquatic Centre recently.
This event attracts the fastest swimmers in New Zealand of all ages - and this year some swimmers from Australia, the Netherlands and Tahiti too.
Lucas qualified to swim three events - 50m butterfly, 50m backstroke and 100m backstroke; and Paige two events - 100m breaststroke and 200m breaststroke, though she chose to swim only the 100m event.
Both swimmers had good morning heat swims and Paige made it through to the evening A final consisting of the fastest eight swimmers, where she placed 7th overall in New Zealand.
The next week Lucas and Paige were joined by clubmate Jayden Bryant to compete at the New Zealand Age Group Swimming Championships, also held in Hastings.
This event attracted more than 600 of the country’s top age-group swimmers plus visiting swimmers from Australia and New Caledonia. To attend this national event, the swimmers had to meet tough qualification times. Making a final means being placed in the top 10 in the swimmer’s age group.
Jayden swam in two events over the week where his heat swim did not qualify him for the finals in his 16-year-old boys’ age group.
Lucas swam seven events, where he proceeded to the final in the 50m backstroke and 100m backstroke for the 16-year-old boys. He made the most of these finals, swimming personal best times to win the silver medal for the New Zealand swimmers in both events.
Alonso Fernandez Rodriguez (coach) with Juan Macalalad, Christina McCutcheon and JD Mananes.
Paige swam in six events, making the finals in four of them for the 15-year-old girls. In these finals she also swam personal best times to win the silver medal in the 100m breaststroke, the bronze in both the 50m breaststroke and 200m breaststroke and finish 9th in the 100m butterfly.
Just to qualify to attend these championships is an achievement, but for Paige and Lucas to gain national medals is huge for them and the club.
Three weeks later, the club had four swimmers - Juan Macalalad, JD Mananes, Jayden Bryant, and Christina McCutcheon - attend the Division II Swimming Competition in Hamilton as part of a Hawke’s Bay Poverty Bay regional team.
Again, to be eligible to attend, every swimmer must gain a qualifying time in each event for their age group. Juan qualified to swim the 50m breaststroke and placed 12th overall in the 14-year-old boys.
JD qualified to swim in five events, gaining two personal best times in 100m individual medley and 50m backstroke, with his best placing being 7th in the 50m breaststroke for the 15-year-old boys.
Jayden qualified to swim in three events, with a personal best time. His best placing was 16th in the 50m backstroke for the 16-year-old and over age group.
Christina qualified for three events, gaining personal best times in all three, with her best placing being 4th in the 100m breaststroke for the 13-year-old girls. Christina’s new personal best times have qualified her to swim the 50m and 100m breaststroke at the New Zealand Short Course Championships to be held later this year.
CHB Swim Club coach Alonso Fernandez Rodriguez and the swimmers have put a lot of work into their training despite four months of not being able to train in the Waipukurau pool while it was being renovated. Instead, they had to train in the Waipawa outdoor pool while it was warm and then travelled, many times each week, to Flaxmere for lane space.
The club thanks Grassroots Trust Central for the grant to help swimmers attend the NZ Age Group Championship and HBPB swimming for their support with planning and funding for the regional team which attended Division II.
If you are interested in getting your child involved in the CHB Swim Club, there is a club night once a month at the Centralines Sports Complex, new members are always welcome. For further information contact Erin Jenkins, chbswimclub@gmail.com or check out the club’s Facebook page.
