Silver is Wairarapa swim highlight

A silver medal to Masterton's Emma Samuel highlighted a successful fourth day for Wairarapa at the national short course swimming championships in Wellington.

Samuel, 13, was placed second in her age group for the 50m backstroke, breaking her Wairarapa record with a time of 31.47s and qualifying for the A final of the 15-years and under event where she was placed 10th.

Bella Biggs (Carterton), already with two medals at the championships, placed fourth in the girls 13-years 200m individual medley and qualified for the B final in the 15 years and under division where she was sixth. Her time of 2m 30.52s was inside her Wairarapa record.

Jacob Smith (Carterton), 15, swam personal best times in the 50m breaststroke (33.56s) and 100m individual medley (1m 4.56s) and made finals in both

Joe Hammond (Carterton), 17, was fifth in the 16-years and over 50m backstroke B final (28.08s) and 10th in the 100m individual medley, where he broke a Wairarapa record set by William Prior in 2007. Hammond's time was 1m 1.11s.

The Wairarapa line-up of Taylah Mawson (Carterton), Biggs, Teysha Deal (Masterton) and Samuel clocked a Wairarapa under-16 years girls record in the 200m regional medley relay of 2m 11.17s although they are all aged 13 or 14.

This record, previously held by the Carterton combination of Bailey Peterson, Talia Hullena, Katrina Simmonds and Grace Hammond, stood at 2m 14.13s.

The boys relay team were back in action in the regional medley final and the all-Carterton squad of the three Smiths - Jacob, Nick and Sam - along with Jock Cudmore, broke the Wairarapa record they had set the day before with a time of 1m 59.08s, finishing seventh.