On the back of a highly successful National Schools Championships, Swim Rotorua continued its rich vein of good form at the National Short Course at the Kilbirnie Pool in Wellington. Despite the high level of racing and very competitive morning heats, the five athletes made several finals.
Jack Weston was the sole podium placegetter with a fine bronze medal in the boys' 15-16 years 100m breaststroke. Despite a very disruptive build-up with sickness, Jack managed to produce the goods on the day with some excellent racing. His heat time of 1m 06.99s was only one tenth of a second outside his best time. Jack went on to make further finals in his signature breaststroke events in the 50m and 200m. Showing his versatility in freestyle, Jack popped up to do a new best time in the 100m freestyle with a 56.37s.
Paddy Baylis was in superlative form. Fresh from his outstanding performances at the National Schools, Paddy produced a great series of races. The best came on the last day with a superb fifth place in the tough 1500m freestyle with a new best time of 17m 14.01s. Paddy also made two finals in the boys 13-14 years' age group. He smashed the five-minute barrier in the 400m medley to take his time down to 4m 56.91s. Paddy also produced a very solid 400m freestyle heat to go 4m 23.55s to place eighth overall.
David Boles produced a clean sweep of best times with the best effort coming in the 200m backstroke. After recently dipping under the 2m 20s mark, David took a sledgehammer to his best time to rocket to a new best time of 2m 15.25s and eighth place overall. David also had two further top 10 placings. These came in the boys' 13-14 years' 400m and 1500m freestyle.
Rachel Mead and Tara Chemis competed in their first National Short Course Championships. Both did themselves proud with some great racing which will put them in good stead for 2015.
