Biggs blitz leads champs

Carterton Swimming Club coach Russell Geange is a realist who is not in the business of waxing lyrical about his proteges.
Geange has been around long enough to understand the dangers of predicting big things for youngsters making a name for themselves at age group level because their long-term commitment to the sport can never be guaranteed.
So when he openly labels anyone as a "potential topliner", you know they must be something special.
In that category is Bella Biggs, the Greytown 11-year-old who came away from last weekend's New Zealand junior championships with a veritable handful of medals - two gold, two silver and a bronze.
"Yes, I think she can go all the way," Geange said guardedly of Biggs when asked whether she had the talent and temperament to be, say, a future Commonwealth Games or Olympic swimmer. "Obviously, it's still early days but, potentially, she could be a topliner ... we'll just have to wait and see."
Geange said Biggs' victory in Wairarapa record time -one of five she set over the two days - in the 200m individual medley was a mark of her mental strength. It followed a second placing in the 100m backstroke, an event she was expected to win, but the disappointment of that failure was quickly put behind her as she dominated her medley rivals.
"It was an outstanding swim, absolutely outstanding," Geange said. "She just went out there and blitzed them, it was high-quality stuff."
While she is very much an all-rounder in that she competes well in each of the strokes, Geange is starting to think the medley could become Biggs' forte, especially now that she has greatly improved her breaststroke, previously her weakness.
"I don't know why it is but the breaststroke often sorts out the major players in the medley," Geange said. "Two years ago, Bella was ordinary in that stroke but now she is one of the best of her age group in the country, that's the sort of determination she has."
While Biggs was undoubtedly the star act from Carterton at the nationals, Geange was also delighted with the efforts of Amy Te Maro, Will McMaster, Brittany Wildman and Kendall Peterson, who also represented the club there. McMaster was an impressive seventh in one of his events in the boys' 10 years and under section and, between them, the five Carterton swimmers notched up no fewer than 18 personal best times.
With something like 300 active members, the Carterton club is past saturation point with Geange admitting there was an "embarrassingly high" number of prospective club members on a waiting list.
He also concedes that while the Carterton pool had benefited from a "good old clean-up" by voluntary labour, the numbers of swimmers not only there but in the whole of the South Wairarapa had reached the stage where a new facility in that region was urgently required.