It was a special moment when Carterton's Bella Biggs was presented with her silver medal after placing second in the girls 13 years 50m butterfly on the second day of the national short course swimming championships in Wellington.
Making the presentation was a life member of both Swim Wairarapa and Swimming New Zealand, Ian McPhee, and he was delighted to have a Wairarapa competitor on the dias.
Biggs clocked a personal best time of 30.88s which broke her Wairarapa record for the under-14 years age group. Winner was Freyah Ruri of the Northwave Swim Club in 29.53s. For Biggs it was her second medal in as many days as she had earlier placed third in the 400m individual medley.
Another Wairarapa swimmer to grab the limelight was Joe Hammond (Carterton) who was fifth in the 17-18 years 400m individual medley with a personal best time of 4min 31.51s, an effort which also placed him ninth in the open final.
There was a notable achievement too from Wairarapa in the boys 13-15 years 200m freestyle relay, where the combination of Sam Smith, Nick Smith, Jock Cudmore, all of Carterton, and John McKeefry of Masterton beat their Wairarapa record with a time of 1min 46.79s in the heats. With Jacob Smith (Carterton) replacing Nick Smith they also did well in the final, clocking 1min 46.31s to place ninth.
