Hammond seizes record

Crack Carterton swimmer Joe Hammond won himself a bronze medal and set a new Wairarapa record in the process on the first day of this week's national age group swimming championships in Wellington.

Contesting the final of the boys 16 years 200m individual medley, Hammond placed third behind Mathew Myers of North Shore and Samuel Perry of St Peters in a time of 2m 11.95s, just inside the previous Wairarapa record established by William Prior of 2m 12.01s.

Hammond's effort was a dramatic improvement on the 2m 15.24s he had returned to qualify for the championships and also on the 2m 16.42s he had clocked when posting fourth fastest time in the heats.

Myers won the final in 2m 10s with Perry second in 2m 10.08s while Hammond was comfortably ahead of fourth-placed William Campell of Wharenui who was timed at 2m 12.53s.

Masterton duo Sven Tobias and Jacob Smith also participated in the heats of the 200m individual medley, Tobias being 27th fastest in the boys 14 years age group with a time of 2m 28.93s and Smith 15th in the boys 15 years section with a time of 2m 23.80s.

The 50m breaststroke heats saw Taylah Mawson (Carterton) 23rd fastest in the girls 14 years division in 39.49s, Tobias 17th in the boys 14 years in 32.67s and Hammond 10th in the boys 16 years in 29.92s.

Bella Biggs (Carterton) was 20th fastest in the heats of the girls 12 and 13 years 200m backstroke in 2m 40.79 and Ben Ruback (Masterton) was 14th fastest in the 200m butterfly for boys 16 years in 2m 23.22s.

For former Masterton swimmer Isaac Foote, now with the Wellington-based Capital club, the first day action brought rich rewards.

He won the 200m individual medley title in the boys 17-18 years division in 2m 10.29s after qualifying in eighth position and he was also second in the 200m butterfly final in 2m 5.99s.

Meanwhile, there was some keen competition at the Genesis Recreation Pool in Masterton on Monday as some of the top youngsters in the Masterton district did battle for their respective schools. Several excellent times were returned in front of a sizeable and vocal crowd of supporters.