Swimming: Hawke's Bay teen Jake Stephens wins eight medals, five of them gold

Jake Stephens (front) with fellow Hawke's Bay medal winners (from left) Alena Kamper, Mahina Ross, Arabella Smith and Lance Dustow. Photo / Paul Taylor

Eight events, eight medals and five of them gold ... and the swimmer was Jake Stephens who hated the thought of going near a pool as a youngster.

One can picture Napier Aquahawks Swim Club coaches Phil Melhuish and Karen Kamper using these words in a promotional talk to new squads in the not so distant future. With his haul, 13-year-old Lindisfarne College Year 9 student Stephens was the best of the Hawke's Bay contingent at the New Zealand Secondary School Championships which ended at the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre in the capital on Sunday.

Spectators at the champs would have struggled to believe that nine years ago going near a pool was a nightmare for Stephens. He hated it but his mother, Karrie, made him take lessons to learn how to swim and it took eight weeks and endless streams of tears before he gave in to Napier-based instructor Bev Mitchell.

"I've got to thank Bev. She did a lot for me in my younger days and is the whole reason I'm swimming now," Stephens said of Mitchell.

"While I was focused I decided not to put any pressure on myself before going to Wellington. I didn't worry about winning or personal bests. I just wanted to try my hardest and give it my all," Stephens explained.

The fact it was his first time competing in the Wellington pool added to the significance of his feats. Stephens, who ranked backstroke as his preferred stroke, was stoked to crack 30 seconds and improve his personal best by 0.59s when he won his 50m backstroke final in 29.80s.

He improved his personal best 100m backstroke time by 0.34s when he won in 1m04.45s. His 200m backstroke winning time of 2m19.94s was a 1.06s improvement on his previous personal best.

Stephens recorded his biggest personal best by 3.69s in his last event of his first New Zealand Secondary Schools champs when he won the 100m fly in 1m04.57s. His other gold came in the 200m fly in a time of 2m23.39 - 3.21s better than his previous personal best for the event.

Stephens, who was competing in the 13-years boys age group, won silver in the 100m individual medley in 1m07.40s - 1.60s faster than his previous personal best. His other silver was captured in the 200m individual medley with a time of 2m24.03s and this was the only event he didn't record a personal best in.

He won bronze in the 50m fly in 29.77s, 1.20s better than his previous personal best.

In the wake of this haul it isn't a surprise Stephens has set Olympic Games selection as a long-term goal - either 2024 or 2028 would be realistic. He is just as focused out of the pool and intends to study law when he leaves school.

"I've got to thank my school and teacher in charge [Murray Smith] for all the support I got as I prepared for the champs," Stephens added.

Smith, said Stephens "exceeded everybody's expectations, none more so than his own".

"Jake is a wonderful boy and a swimmer of exceptional ability with huge potential. He always had something like this in him so it wasn't a complete surprise," Smith added.

Stephens was one of five Hawke's Bay swimmers to win medals at the four-day champs. Fellow Westshore Surf Lifesaving Club athlete and Napier Girls High School student Mahina Ross won silver in the 400m freestyle. Her schoolmate, Arabella Smith, won silvers in her 100m and 400m freestyle events and bronze in her 50m backstroke final.

Sacred Heart College's Alena Kamper, a two-time winner of the open women's 2.5km section of the Napier Ocean Swim, won bronze in her 200m fly final.

Taradale High School's Lance Dustow, who has only been a para athlete for three-and-a-half months, won four medals from the five S14 classified events he entered. Dustow won silvers in his 200m freestyle and 50m fly finals and bronzes in his 100m freestyle and backstroke finals.

Like Stephens, Kamper, Ross and Smith, 17-year-old Dustow, who is coached by Melhuish and Kamper at the Aquahawks club, will compete at the national short course champs in Auckland in a fortnight.

CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this story said that Bev Mitchell had retired. Bev is still coaching but has made some changes that take effect from Term Four.
"I'm definitely not retired at all," says Bev. "I'm doing Under 5s and holiday programmes (for school aged kids) as usual."