Swimming: Sisters dominate school champs

Sisters Julia and Georgina Toomey of Christchurch Girls High were among the top performers at the South Island Secondary Schools Swimming championships at Moana Pool in Dunedin on Saturday.

Forty-five secondary schools represented and 142 swimmers competed.

The two sisters, daughters of 1974 Commonwealth Games swimming representative Michael Toomey, displayed outstanding form.

They featured prominently for best individual honours. Julia shared the over-15 female grade honours with Otago Girls High School swimmer, Stella Johnston.

Julia, 16, won both the 50m and 100m freestyle events in convincing style.

Her time in the 50m freestyle was 28.22s. Georgina, 15, was second in 29.56s and Johnston third in 30.47s.

She then scored a big victory in the 100m freestyle, recording 1m 00.88s. Georgina was again second in 1m 3.85s and Johnston third in 1m 7.20s.

But it was Georgina who turned the tables in the 50m butterfly, when she went to the wall in 29.91s with Julia second in 30.17s and Morgan Hewitt (Gore High School) third in 33.91s.

Both sisters were back in action at the end of the programme to help in securing victory in both the 200m medley relay and 200m freestyle relay events for Christchurch Girls High.

The best individual honours in the under 14 female grade went to Joyce Wiegersma, a 14-year-old student from Invercargill's James Hargest High School, who won the girls open 200m freestyle in 2m 19.67s and finished runner-up in the girls open 400m freestyle in 4m 58.95s.

The men's 15-and-over grade saw 17-year-old Verdon College student Tim Holden secure individual honours with five straight individual victories.

Holden dominated in the breaststroke event with straight victories in the 50m, 100m, and 200m events, recording 34.27s for the 50m, 1m 15.38s for the 100m and 2m 42.46s for the 200m.

He also won both the 50m and 100m freestyle events with times of 27.69s for the 50m and 59.16s for the 100m.

Christchurch Boys High's Richard OBrien, 13, impressed in taking individual honours in the boys' 14-and-under grade.

James Hargest High School took overall honours as best performed school finishing on 161.50 points with Ashburton College second on 145 points and Rangiora High School third on 131 points.

Best-performed local school was Otago Girls High School, which finished sixth on 93 points, while Kavanagh College were next best finishing ninth overall on 71.50 points.

- NZPA