SWIMMING - All going well for golden girl

THE Ruri swimming dynasty continues to flourish in Northland with 9-year-old Freyah taking over as the family's golden girl of the moment.
Freyah is the second youngest of a family of seven girls and one boy who are all sporting naturals - with her talented siblings providing targets for her to aim for in the pool.
Right now she is aiming at their achievements at the New Zealand Junior National Swimming Championships, to be held in Auckland in February. She has qualified in 12 events in the 10-year-old and under events for the championships and is currently training hard.
The family, formerly from Okaihau and Kaikohe, relocated to Whangarei in April this year with one of the main goals of the move to give the talented youngsters more sporting opportunities.
Her mother Moata said rather than just swimming and netball, there were now other options for the girls.
"It's so all the girls get the opportunity to get competition and to get into a wider range of sports," she said.
Freyah joined the Manaia Surf Swim Team in Whangarei, and can claim to be Northland's top female swimmer in her age group with impressive record breaking and medal winning results.
In August, Freyah received the Lorraine Holmes Memorial Trophy for the most promising under-12 swimmer at Northland's prize giving carnival. Not surprising, given her record last season.
At the Northland Age Group Championships in Kerikeri at the beginning of the year, Freyah won nine from nine gold medals and broke seven age-group race records. At last year's national juniors in Hamilton, Freyah qualified for and swam seven 10-year-old girls and under events swimming personal bests in all events.
At the Northland Sprint Champs in March, Freyah won four from four gold medals breaking the 50m back and 50m fly records.
In September at the Bay of Islands Winter Champs, Freyah won 12 from 12 golds and broke 10 race records and six Northland 50m and 100m short course records.
Last month, the Tikipunga Primary school student won eight 9-year-old girls and under medals, six gold, a silver and a bronze at the Auckland junior long course championships. She broke five 50m and 100m Northland long course records in the process and was sixth in the 10-year-old and under girls 200m freestyle and 200m backstroke events.
Freyah holds seven from nine Northland short course 50m and 100m records and six from eight 50m and 100m long course records. Her medal haul from four swimming championships from January to November was 34.