There might have been only three of them, but the small Wairarapa contingent made their presence felt in a big way at the national long course Masters swimming championships in Auckland, bringing back a total of 16 gold medals and two silvers. Kirsten Cameron, 32, was in her usual dominating form,winning freestyle events over 50m (29.75secs), 100m (62.2secs), 200m (2min 13secs), 400m freestyle (4min 33secs), 800m (9min 24secs) and 1500m (17min 47secs). Cameron was ranked the fastest swimmer (including the men) in all freestyle events over 100m, and while she failed in her attempt to set a world Masters age group record for the 1500m freestyle, her time was a personal best and a New Zealand record by a remarkable 35secs, or basically a full length of a 50m pool. Indeed that time places her as one of the leading female swimmers over 1500m, any age inclusive. That though was not the only national record set by Cameron for her age group. She also broke two others and gained a further gold medal by winning her age group championship by a clear margin. Jo Matthews won three gold and one silver medals with her golds coming in the 200m butterfly (3min 21secs), 100m butterfly (1min 26secs) and 400m individual medley (7min 16secs) and she was just edged out of winning the 50m butterfly in which she registered a time of 38.3secs. Richard Swallow won the 100m butterfly in 1min 10secs, the 100m butterfly in 2min 40secs, the 200m individual medley in 2min 50secs, the 400m individual medley in 6mins 6secs and the 200m backstroke in 2min 56secs. He was also second in the 200m freestyle in 11min 41secs and comfortably won his age group championship title. Cameron, Matthews and Swallow all have further goals for this year. Cameron will compete in the Australian open water championships in Sydney later this month and then the world Masters championships in San Francisco in August. Matthews is aiming to contest the South Island long course championships in July, and then later in the year all three will compete at the national short course championships to be hosted by the local Masters club, Shear Magic..
