Swim Rotorua rounded off a busy 2016 with five team members competing in Australia last week.
They were representing the AquaKnights Team which consists of the best swimmers from the Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Hawke's Bay/Poverty Bay and Taranaki.
Bianca Donelley, 14, and Paddy Baylis, 16, raced at the Queensland Championships held in Brisbane. This is one of the biggest and most prestigious swim meets in Australia which attracts hundreds of swimmers including Olympians and world record holders.
Despite the long days and intense competition, both Bianca and Paddy enjoyed some success. Bianca started her campaign in fine style to take bronze in the girls' 14 years 200m backstroke with a personal best time of 2 minutes 22.73 seconds. Her 100m backstroke was a solid 1min 07.78sec which placed Bianca tenth in the final. In her favoured freestyle events, Bianca came up against a strong Australian age group and had to settle for placings just outside the top 10.
Paddy produced a fine effort in the 1500m freestyle to achieve a personal best time of 16min 26.67sec which placed him just outside the medals in fourth place. Further best times came in the 400m medley and 100m freestyle. In the 400m freestyle, Paddy made it through to the final to place tenth overall.