Swimming: Bay swimmers dominate NZ squad

Benji Rowe dives over Otumoetai Swimming Club teammates, left to right, Thomas Chaney, Joshua Pickett and Blake Horne. Photo / John Borren

Tauranga swimmers led by Greerton's New Zealand short and long course 1500m record holder Nathan Capp continue to make their mark on the national stage.

Capp is the inspiration for the next talented group of teenagers who have repeatedly exceeded personal best times in a memorable year for Western Bay swimming.

Joshua Pickett, Benji Rowe, Thomas Chaney, Blake Horne (Otumoetai), Grace Eglinton (Mount Maunganui) and Libby Bradley (Greerton) have been selected in the 16-strong Aquaknights team to contest next week's Victorian Age Championships in Melbourne.

Tauranga clubs have the highest percentage of the 16 swimmers representing the Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Taranaki and Hawke's Bay/Poverty Bay regions.

The criteria to qualify is as stringent as it gets at this level, with the swimmers having to meet the average top six times from the past three years' championships. All swimmers are expected to make finals. Otumoetai's head coach Stefan Swanepoel, who is also head coach of the Aquaknights, says it has been an unbelievable year for the club and his four charges joining him in Melbourne.

"I feel very blessed and I don't think we could have done any better this year," Swanepoel said. "These four boys have absolutely out-performed any expectations I had. Apart from this meet they have qualified for, they came back from the short course nationals with 22 medals.

"They are going there to win medals and their expectation is to do their best, and their best is very highly ranked at the moment. Three of them have won gold medals at New Zealand nationals."

The swimmers cannot wait to take on the best young Australians.

"This is my first international meet," Chaney said. "The qualifying standards were a lot harder than a New Zealand national meet so it is a good step up from what I am used to."

Where Rowe wants to step up to is the medal dais. "I am hoping to get a medal and have been training to get a medal," he said. "Stefan pushes us during training to try and get our times lower and our average speed up."

- Ruby Mathews, Rhianna Maxwell, Logan Horne, Danielle Spreadborough (Otumoetai), Claudia Capp and Calum Gilmour (Greerton) met the qualifying times for Melbourne but missed selection.

The squad
Victorian Age Championships, December 13-18

Tauranga Aquablacks
*Otumoetai: Joshua Pickett, Benji Rowe, Thomas Chaney, Blake Horne
:Mount Maunganui: Grace Eglinton
*Greerton: Libby Bradley