Swimming: Record numbers eye Open medals

Kerikeri's Daniel Gaualofa will be one of Northland's best hopes at the NZ Open Championships.

A record 10 Northlanders will compete at the premier event on the Swimming NZ calendar, the 2015 NZ Open Championships.

Paralympic swimmer Daniel Gaualofa, 17, from the Bay of Islands club has the best chance of all the Northlanders at taking away medals from the championships, being ranked first in all of his seven events in the Athlete with a Disability Multi Class section.

Gaualofa is ranked first in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle, the 50m backstroke, 50m butterfly, 50m breaststroke and 200m individual medley events.

Best of the able-bodied Northlanders is Northwave's 14-year-old Ellie Eastwood, who will be swimming in her first NZ Open Championships. She has a best ranking of 10th New Zealander in the 200m breaststroke and is also 12th in the 400m individual medley. She will also compete in the 50m breaststroke.

Callum Prime and Hayley McIntosh, also of Northwave, are next best ranked at 12th; Prime in the 400m individual medley and McIntosh in the 800m freestyle.

McIntosh is also 15th in the 400m freestyle and will also compete in the 200m freestyle and 200m backstroke as well as the 200m individual medley and 100m and 200m backstroke.

Fifteen-year-old Isabelle Paton from Bream Bay is next best with a ranking of 13th in the 100m breaststroke and will also swim in the 50m breaststroke.

Ciara Smith, 14, from Northwave is the other Northlander in the top 15.

She is the 15th ranked New Zealander in the 100m and 200m breaststroke and will also swim in the 50m breaststroke.

The other Northwave swimmers competing are 16-year-old Matthew Gordon (50m, 100m and 200m backstroke), 15-year-old Madeline Gordon (50m freestyle) and 14-year-old Annabell Simpson (200m backstroke).

David Van der Star, 18, also qualified as a Northwave swimmer. The other swimmer from Northland competing is Bay of Island's 16-year-old Neve Clapton in the 50m backstroke.

Northwave will have the biggest Northland club team attending a NZ Open Championships with seven swimmers. The champs are set to start on April 14 at the Westwave Pool, Auckland.