Small Whanganui Swim Team win big at the Wellington Regional Long Course Championships

Whanganui's Jack Robertson (centre) surprised everyone bar his coach when winning gold in the 200m freestyle at the Wellington Regional Long Course Championships at the weekend.

The Whanganui Swimming Club may now come under the Swimming Manawatu banner, but that didn't stop them going on a medal raid in Wellington.

Even though it was a smaller than usual Toyota Whanganui Swim team travelling south for the Wellington Regional Long Course Championships, the results the swimmers achieved over the long weekend were outstanding.

With a lot of the familiar names having moved on to university or concentrating on other endeavours, a new group of swimmers proved that they are more than capable of maintaining or even exceeding the standards set by their predecessors.

The break out star of the meet was 13-year-old Jack Robertson from Waverley, who surprised everyone (except coach Andy McLay) with some brilliant swims to not only qualify for National Age Group Champs (NAGS) in April, but also to win a gold medal in the 200m freestyle, silver medals in the 100m and 400 freestyle, the 50m and 200m breaststroke and a bronze in the 100m breaststroke.

Robertson swum personal best times in every event he raced and improved his time in all of the finals he swam which was an outstanding overall result.

Also in top form was Cheyenne Nightingale (13) who was the Whanganui club's top points scorer and worked through a heavy race schedule picking up more NAGS times and winning gold medals in the 400m freestyle and 200m butterfly (and was also the fastest 13-year-old in the 15 and under age group 800m freestyle), a silver in the 400m IM and bronze in the 100m butterfly and the 200m freestyle.

Cayden Earles (13) underlined her potential winning gold in the 50m backstroke, silvers in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke and a bronze in the 400m IM, and Georgia Abraham, who has also just turned 13, gained bronze medals in 50m and 100m backstroke events.

Fouteen-year-old Ethan Bryers, who races the most gruelling of events, gained silvers in the 400m and 800m freestyle as well as contesting the 200m butterfly, 400m IM and 1500m freestyle (where he was the 2nd placed 14-year-old in the 15 and under event), and Shannon Schimanski in one of her last meets before heading off to university in Wellington won gold in the 18 and over 100m backstroke, silver in the 50m and 100m breaststroke behind Commonwealth Games representative Bronagh Ryan and the 100m freestyle and bronzes in the 200m IM, the 50m backstroke and the 50m freestyle.

Whanganui's other medallist was 16-year-old Amelia Cronin who gained a silver in the 400m IM.

The other swimmers in the team, Lucy Somerville (13), John Bryant (13) and Lennart Nowak (15) all swam some great races with Somerville swimming a NAGS qualifying time in the 50m backstroke in placing 4th (but requiring a 100m time to be eligible to attend the meet), and her and Bryant both qualifying for finals in events.

The next meet for the Toyota team's junior swimmers is the Hawera carnival before the whole squad will travel to Manawatu for what is now the club's regional championships and a another chance to pick up qualifying times for the National meets.