Swimming: Prime breaks Northland's records

Callum Prime led the way at the NZ Age Group Swimming Championships in Wellington. Photo / Supplied

Northland came away from the national age group champs with a swag of medals and top five finishes, making it one of the most successful all-round performances from a Northland swimming team.

Ten swimmers won a total of 14 medals in their age groups, with Educare Northland Sports Talent Hub members Callum Prime and Hayley McIntosh (both from Northwave) leading the way.

An incredible 43 Northland records were broken during the championships, half of them (22) by Callum Prime.

Prime (15) came in the top five in all of his seven events, winning silver medals in the 50m freestyle, the 200m backstroke and the 200m individual medley.

He also came 4th in the 400m individual medley, the 100m backstroke and the 100m freestyle as well as 5th in the 50m backstroke.

McIntosh (16) won a sliver in the 200m backstroke, bronze medals in the 200m and 400m freestyle events and placed 5th in the 100m freestyle.

Another five swimmers recorded top five finishes, resulting in over half the Northland team of 27 finishing in the top five of at least one event.

The other top five finishers included Paul Linton (Bream Bay), Ciara Smith (Northwave), Annabell Simpson (Northwave), Jeremy Elliott (Bay of Islands), Mia Gordon (Northwave), Madeline Gordon (Northwave), Isabelle Paton (Bream Bay), Euan Sapwell (Whangarei), Ellie Eastwood (Northwave), Ngawari Pio (Nga Papahu), Samantha Bailey (Whangarei), Conor Swords (Bream Bay) and Toby Lengyel (Whangarei).

Other Northland swimmers that qualified for night finals, and therefore finished in the top ten of their events, included Northwave's Inez Wilson-Harding, Matthew Gordon and Matigan Smith, Bream Bay's Ruby-Lee Beckham and Kieran Swords and Whangarei's Laura Martin.

The most prestigious records broken were the 8 Northland long course open records broken by Northwave swimmers Callum Prime (50m freestyle x2, 100m backstroke and 200m individual medley), Matthew Gordon (50m backstroke), Hayley McIntosh (400m freestyle), Ellie Eastwood (200m breaststroke) and Ciara Smith (50m breaststroke).

Northland 15 and under long course records were broken by Callum Prime (9), Ellie Eastwood and Ciara Smith, while Northland long course age group records were broken by Callum Prime, Jeremy Elliott, Euan Sapwell, Mia Gordon, Hayley McIntosh, Ellie Eastwood, Ciara Smith and Matthew Gordon.

Other Northlanders to compete included Maddison Brooke, Hayley Donovan and Simon De Long (Whangarei).