Swimming Northland's Julie Paton (left) and Carlrine Gillespie watch on as the swimmers try to leave an impression. Photo / John Stone
Swimming Northland's Julie Paton (left) and Carlrine Gillespie watch on as the swimmers try to leave an impression. Photo / John Stone
More than 100 of Northland's youngest swimmers kicked off their 2019 in a strong fashion at the Dargaville swim club carnival on Saturday.
Over 200 people saw 121 swimmers participate in almost 500 swims between them on a blistering hot day at Northland's only 50 metre swimming pool last weekend. Swimmers from 16 clubs took part in the event, eight of them coming from Auckland.
Northwave's Tyler Preston was one of many who stood out as one to watch as he recorded the fastest time out of any age group for the 50m backstroke (recording a personal best), 100m freestyle, 400m freestyle and second fastest in the 200m freestyle.
The relays were a highly anticipated and hotly contested event on the day. Bay of Islands took out both of the age group relays with Mia Le Roux, Sascha Bell, Ciara Andrews and Oliver Horsfield winning the under 12s category while Emilia Finer, Keyah Tana, Kori Brown and Archie White won the 13 and over category.
Young swimmers dive in hoping to better their personal bests. Photo / John Stone
"Dargaville's 50m pool is a godsend and it was a great opportunity to do really good times and there were a number of really good swimmers," Bream Bay swim coach Richard Dunkerton said.
"It's one of the only ones at the time of year that the water is going to be good for swimming in based on water temperature and there was very little wind."
Dunkerton said the event was a blessing for his swimmers who performed well in great conditions.
"I was surprised at how well we did because we had done some brutal sessions before that but across the board I think most people would be happy with the meet."
He said Swimming Northland deserved congratulating for its up-to-date technology at swimming events which allowed swimmers to operate in professional conditions and record accurate times.
Northwave swimmer Tyler Jepsen announced himself as one to watch for the future. Photo / John Stone
Bream Bay's swim club had the largest presence at the meet with 27 swimmers taking the plunge. Swimming Northland's Julie Paton said the carnival was one of many competitions held to prepare swimmers for age group championship events.
"It helps swimmers track where they are and also a lot of them are probably in the middle of intense training at the moment, leading up to age groups.
"Every swimmer has their own goals whether they are trying to just improve their time or do it for fitness."
Paton, who was a technical official at the carnival, said these events gave swimmers the necessary preparation for the Northland age group championships, starting on January 18.
"The age groups is a flagship event for Northland swimming and as well as competing for medals and records there, they also make themselves eligible for the Swimming Northland awards and a lot of those awards are based on performances at Northland age group championships."
Swimmers also used these events to qualify for national meets such as the division two age group championships, the national age group championships and New Zealand Open.
Paton said the event was organised well by the Dargaville swim club in spite of the challenge to get enough staff for such an event. A number of timekeepers, inspectors, judges, starters and office staff are all required to make an such an event run smoothly.
Paton said the event showed a lot of undiscovered talent in the region.
"You see a tiny little swimmer with a good technique racing down the pool and you think, 'they're doing pretty well' but then you don't know much about them.
"You do get to know them through the years, whether they're qualifying for national tournaments is a good way to tell."
Registration for the Northland age group championships close today . More information can be found on the Swimming Northland website https://northland.swimming.org.nz.
