Swimming: Trio to help defend zonal title

Ellie Eastwood is one of three Northlanders to qualify for the Northern Harlequins. Photo / Tania Whyte

For the second consecutive year, three of Northland's top swimmers have been selected to represent the Northern Harlequins in the 2016 NZ Zonal Championships.

Poised to make a splash at the Sir Owen Glenn National Aquatic Centre in Auckland tomorrow, Northwave swimmers Hayley McIntosh, Callum Prime and Ellie Eastwood have all been selected in the Harlequins team to contest the event, which is being held for the second time by Swimming NZ after a successful inaugural event in 2015.

All three were involved in the event last year where they helped the Harlequins team to win the 2015 NZ Zonal Championships.

The event is essentially a team's championship, where New Zealand is split into four zonal teams - South Island (Makos), Lower North Island (All Stars), Central North Island (Aqua Knights) and Northern (Harlequins). Northland, Auckland and Counties-Manukau swimmers are all eligible for selection into the Harlequins team.

Each zonal team consists of 20 senior swimmers (10 female and 10 male 16 years and over) and 20 junior swimmers (10 female and 10 male 15 years and under).

Each team member swims a maximum of three events plus team relays, and points accrued by each individual and in the relays will go towards the overall team points, with the highest score winning the event.

This year both McIntosh and Prime have been selected for the senior team while Eastwood will once again swim for the junior team.

McIntosh will swim in the longer distance (400m/800m) freestyle events while Prime and Eastwood will swim the 200m and 400m individual medley events. Prime is also likely to swim in a backstroke event, while Eastwood will also likely swim a breaststroke event.

The 2016 Zonal Championships will be screened live on Sky Sport 4 from 5pm, with 160 swimmers competing.