Swimming: Swim Rotorua reclaim AquaKnights title

Swim Rotorua are the AquaKnights Junior Festival champions again. Photo / Supplied

Swim Rotorua juniors produced a racing masterclass to retain the AquaKnights Junior Festival title at the weekend.

The team of 18 combined effectively to be crowned champions at the event for 12 years and under at the Rotorua Aquatic Centre. Over three days Swim Rotorua collected an impressive 1278 points, 300 more than their closest rivals.

More than 380 juniors from all over the Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay, Poverty Bay, Taranaki and Waikato raced.

Swim Rotorua's Ariel Muchirahondo broke an incredible 14 Bay of Plenty records. His effort earned him four golds, seven silvers and two bronze medals in the 10 years and under age group. The golds came in the 100m and 200m backstroke, 50m butterfly and 200m breaststroke.

Also keeping the record writer busy was Kaia Joyce who broke the BOP record for the girls' 11 years 50m freestyle with a stunning 29.65s. This was another win for the Swim Rotorua team and Kaia also claimed gold in the 50m and 100m butterfly and the 200m medley. She also took home four second places and four third places.

Miki Joyce bagged three bronze medals in breaststroke events. He also claimed valuable team points in the 50m and 100m butterfly to demonstrate his growing confidence with this stroke.

Ngamihi Simpson produced some excellent racing against top opposition. Competing in the 12 years age group, Ngamihi took second in the 100m and 200m butterfly and five third place finishes in backstroke, breaststroke and medley events.

Ava Tremain placed in the top 10 for all her events bar one. Despite coming fourth in four events, she persevered right to the end where she picked up a well deserved third place in the girls' 10 years 100m freestyle with a swift time of 1m 13.03s.

Taonga Wharekura showed off his sprint skills to claim third in the 50m and 200m backstroke with times of 31.71s and 2m 35.50s respectively.

Swim Rotorua's strength in depth was a factor in winning the Top Club award with additional points claimed by Lizzie Avis, Hannah Buchanan, Hone Curtis, Kai Jung Ishida, Emma Kiss, Aaron Muchirahondo, Ashleigh Randell and Sam Schulze.

The relays produced the most exciting racing with all the clubs vying for sprint bragging rights. Swim Rotorua rose to the challenge to win the 6x50m mixed freestyle relay with Ariel Muchirahondo, Ava Tremain, Sam Schulze, Kaia Joyce, Taonga Wharekura and Ngamihi Simpson finishing in 3m 9s.

In the mixed 4x50m medley relay Wharekura, Miki Joyce, Simpson and Kaia Joyce produced another victory in a time of 2m 13.40s.

In the girls 4x50m freestyle relay Kaia Joyce, Lizzie Avis, Emma Kiss and Simpson took second place, as did the boys' team represented by Aaron Muchirahondo, Miki Joyce, Ariel Muchirahondo and Wharekura.

Head coach Alastair Johnson was thrilled with his young team.

"Our goal was to attack the swim meet, rather than defend our title. The athletes did an absolutely outstanding job. They are all a pleasure to coach. Myself and the rest of the coaching team are incredibly proud of them and their super supportive parents.

"To win again this year by an even bigger margin illustrates that we are doing a lot of things right. However, there are always areas that we can improve on and we will be challenging these youngsters to develop their skills so they can enjoy further success."

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