Swimming: Fitzjohn 'surprise' record

Louis Fitzjohn on his way to gold and a BOP record in the 50m butterfly at the BOP Junior Championships. Photo / Supplied

A large team of Greerton Junior (12 and under) swimmers competed with good success during the weekend's BOP Junior Championships in Rotorua.

Surprising everybody, except perhaps coaches Riccardo Pini and Tai Daniela, was Louis Fitzjohn, 11, who blitzed through the 100m butterfly in championship record time of 1:16.82 for gold. He then followed that sensational effort with a 32.40 sprint for gold in the 50m butterfly. This personal best by two seconds catapulted Fitzjohn to the top of the all-time BOP rankings for his age group. Another eight individual medals followed plus a silver in the relay.

Topping the club's individual gold medal count was Ian Pugh, 10, winning the backstroke clean sweep, 50m, 100m and 200m. He added to that a fingernail length 50m freestyle victory in 33.85 seconds. Some fine freestyle swimming saw him add three more silvers to his collection. Younger brother Elliott, 9, paced himself well for five silvers and a bronze from his six events.

Aidan Heath, 12, up against some top competition fought through the fields well to nab five bronze medals to add to his relay silver. Jacob Browne, 12, snatched two individual silvers in his favoured breaststroke events along with a 50m butterfly bronze. Daniel Harrington, 11, a relay silver medal winner swam a fine 200m backstroke for bronze in a NZ Junior qualifying time.

Ariana Roberts, 9, in her first big championship won breaststroke bronze over 100m while Caitlin Farrell, 10, won bronze in the 200m backstroke.

A number of swimmers just missed podium places most notably Tom Jury, 11, who indicated he might be one to watch in coming years. Brooke Ross, 11, was also unlucky taking the dreaded 4th position three times and Ben Paterson, 12, knocked on the door of the podium a couple of times with some solid backstroke swimming.