The Northland age group swimming team heads to Wellington this week to compete in the NZ Short Course (25m) Champs with high hopes of bringing home a bunch of medals.
Four of the six Northland swimmers head into the national championships with top 10 rankings, with the best of them being Bay of Islands' Daniel Gaualofa and Northwave's Freyah Ruri and Melita Raravula.
Fifteen-year-old Gaualofa will be swimming in the athlete with a disability (AWD) events and is ranked first in the 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 100m individual medley and the 200m freestyle. He is also ranked second in the 50m freestyle, 200m individual medley and the 400m freestyle.
Ruri will be going for gold in all the girls' 13-year-old events she has entered, being ranked in the top three in all of them. She is top ranked in the 50m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 50m butterfly and the 100m backstroke. She is also second ranked in the 100m butterfly, 200m freestyle, 200m backstroke and the 400m freestyle, and third in the 200m butterfly and 800m freestyle.
Raravula, the 2011/12 Northland Swimmer of the Year, is ranked first in the girls 16-year-old age group in the 50m and the 100m butterfly, and the 100m individual medley. She will also be pushing hard for gold in the 200m butterfly, where she is ranked second, and in the 50m breaststroke, where she is ranked third.
