Hawke's Bay swimmer produces world championship masterstroke

Emma Godwin from the Heretaunga Sundevils with her four gold and three silver medals from the 2022 Apollo Projects NZ Short Course Champs. Photo / Paul Taylor

A Hawke's Bay swimmer was one of only four people in the country to put up an A standard world championship qualifying time at the 2022 Apollo Projects NZ Short Course Champs.

The event held at National Aquatic Centre from August 23-27 saw swimmers race in short course 25m pools and Hawke's Bay haul home a bunch of medals and break a national record.

Emma Godwin from the Heretaunga Sundevils was a highlight, setting a FINA A qualifying time of 2 minutes 7.11 seconds in the 200-metre backstroke for the 2022 FINA World Swimming Championships (25m).

She was also part of a team, alongside Kennedy Molloy, Sarah Birkett and Kate Molloy, who won gold and set a New Zealand record in the open 4 x 50m freestyle relay event.

She won three other open grade gold medals, in the 200m backstroke, 50m backstroke and 100m freestyle.

She also won three open grade silver medals in 100m backstroke, 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle.

Godwin said she was grateful to be competing again after a hard couple of years for sport with Covid and she was pleased with the result.

"I'm very happy, I couldn't ask for much more really," Godwin said.

She said previously qualified under the B standard for the 2018 Fina World Short Course Championship.

"To qualify this time under the A is the next step really."

She said she hoped to inspire other young swimmers in the region with her success.

Heretaunga Sundevils head coach William Benson said there were only four swimmers across both genders and all strokes at the event that achieved a FINA A standard qualifying time.

He said Godwin was still able to set personal best times despite limited time to prepare.

"Emma was racing two and a half months ago in Europe at the Mare Nostrum circuit and it has been a pretty condensed build-up to this meet," Benson said.

He said it wasn't often that a swimmer from the provinces was competing at such a high level as Godwin.

"For the most part, the other people that make these teams are from the major cities, so it's pretty rare that we get someone from the provinces swimming at this level," he said.

"You need someone at the pointy end to kind of pull everyone through, to kind of be the figurehead to show people that it can happen from these places."

He said the new Hawke's Bay Aquatic centre facility was awesome and helped a lot with preparation.

"Leading into this world short course championship, now you actually get to train in a pool that's at the same level you are going to race in, whereas we've always been quite compromised with our depth of pool."

From the total Hawke's Bay contingent across four swim teams, there were four open gold medals, six open silver medals, one open bronze medal won and six gold, and eight silver and six bronze age group medals.

One Hawke's Bay Poverty Bay open record and four Hawke's Bay Poverty Bay age group records were also broken.

The FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) will take place in Melbourne from 13-18 December.