Wairarapa make a splash at nationals

Wairarapa swimmers made 28 finals and recorded a total of 54 personal best times at the recent national division two championships.
A highlight was the breaking of two Wairarapa under-14yrs short course records by Leon Nicho, the 200m backstroke by 0.85secs and the 50m backstroke by 0.70secs
There was exciting news too for Hamish Hammond and Matthew Dymond, who both qualified for next year's national age groups in the 200m backstroke, with Dymond also bettering the qualifying mark in the 200m butterfly.
Making the effort of the Wairarapa contingent even more notable was the fact that the four 14-year-old boys competed in a group which took in swimmers aged 15yrs yet still managed to make their presence felt.
Henry Brown, 14, proved that backstroke is his specialist stroke by placing first in the 50m in 34.48secs, first in the 100m in 1min 16.18secs and fourth in the 200m in 2min 47.30secs. He also produced a strong performance in the 200m individual medley in which he was placed second in a time of 2min 27.79secs. That was a personal best time for Brown by 8.05secs and he swam 14 personal best times in total.
William Clapperton, 13, was placed fourth in the 50m breaststroke with a time of 37.70secs and ninth in the 100m breaststroke with a time of 1min 23.21secs, a personal best for him by 4.28secs.
Matthew Dymond, 14, performed well over the middle and long distances. He was fourth in the 200m butterfly in a time of 2min 30,67secs, a massive improvement of 34.17secs on his previous best. In the 100m backstroke he was placed fifth in 2min 24.53secs and he was sixth in the 400m individual medley in 5min 22.3secs, a personal best for him by 19.19secs.
But it was on the last day that Dymond made the biggest waves, placing second in the 1500m freestyle in 17mins 55.02secs, all of 73.12secs faster than he had recorded before.
Jared Gray, 14, registered personal best times in each of his five events. His best efforts came on the 100m individual medley where he improved his time by 3.44secs and the 100m butterfly where he did the same by 4.84secs. Gray was faced with a swim-off in the 50m breaststroke when his heat time was the same as another swimmer and he won that convincingly, his time of 34.71secs being a personal best by 1.7secs.
Hamish Hammond, 14, confirmed that backstroke is his strength by qualifying for all the finals in that section. He was placed fifth in the 50m with a time of 31.17secs, fourth in the 100m in 1min 6.65secs and third in the 200m in 2.24.14, which beat his personal best by 8.8secs. Hammond also swam in the 200m individual medley final where he was seventh in 2min 30.26secs. In all he registered 13 personal best times.
Bridget Maher, 16, showed early on in her heats that she was the girl to beat in her age group. She swam a personal best in all of her five finals.
Maher was placed second in the 100m freestyle in 1min 4.21secs, first in the 200m freestyle in 2min 17.10secs, first in the 40m freestyle in 4min 45.32secs and first in the 800m freestyle in 9.29.70secs, a personal best by all of 29secs. She was also placed second in the 400m individual medley in 5min 41.,61secs, 17.36secs inside what she had done before.
Leon Nicho, 13, was in fine form at backstroke, breaking the Wairarapa short course records in both the 50m and 200m. In the 50m he was first in 31.45secs and he placed sixth in the 100m in 1min 12.02secs and fourth in the 200m in 2min 33.10secs.