Whanganui’s Paige Conley now a national and secondary schools swimming champion

Paige Conley's rich run of form has continued.

Whanganui swimmer Paige Conley’s golden run has continued at the national secondary school championships.

The 13-year-old, a double gold medal winner at national age group level this year, claimed another at the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre.

She won the 200 metres butterfly, claimed a silver in the 200m freestyle - breaking the 2012 Whanganui short course record with a time of 2:15.50 - and finished off with bronzes in the 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly.

Blake Candish, 14, won bronzes in the 100m and 200m butterfly.

His time of 2:18.69 in the 200m butterfly was enough to break Woody Martin’s 2006 Whanganui short course record of 2:19.06.

Whanganui Swimming Club spokesman Aaron Bunker said there were two things that made Conley a special swimmer - commitment and focus.

“No matter how much talent you’ve got, you’ve got to put in the work.

“Paige, along with all the kids who attended the secondary schools [champs], have become great role models for the younger generation coming through.”

Eli Abraham, Georgia Abraham, Ruby Hoekstra, Sophie Young-Wilson and Tegan Lowe all recorded multiple top-10 finishes at the meet.

There was extra hype around swimming at the moment thanks to the World Aquatic Championships in Japan, Bunker said.

New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather claimed bronze in the 400m freestyle last week.

The Dunedin 19-year-old finished behind Australia’s Ariane Titmus, who set a world record time, and the USA’s Katie Ledecky.

“Seeing a Kiwi on the podium next to them is amazing,” Bunker said.

“Then, we’ve got our own swimmers performing well nationally at the same time.”

New Zealand sent 15 swimmers to Japan, including four-time Commonwealth Games medallist Lewis Clareburt.

Bunker said the winter training programme was well under way.

“Things are a little bit harder with it being dark in the mornings and evenings but everyone is putting the mahi in to get the results.”

Attention now turns to October’s West Coast Championships, Whanganui’s premier swim meet.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.