Swimming is back: Bay of Plenty athletes thrive after lockdown speed bump

Evolution Aquatics Tauranga's Keira Allott set a Bay of Plenty swimming record. Photo / Supplied

Swimming is back.

That was the feeling among swimmers and supporters alike at Bay of Plenty's first major post-lockdown swim competition, the Evolution Winter Champs.

Earlier this month, more than 370 swimmers from throughout the North Island descended on the notoriously fast Baywave 25m pool looking for a share of $5000 in prize money and fast times as they build into upcoming New Zealand championship events.

A star-studded roster of nationally ranked swimmers attended including 2016 Olympian and New Zealand record holder Bradley Ashby, who became the Noxen Skins open champion.

The highly anticipated "Noxen Medley Skins" event takes the meet's top 10 swimmers into a race-off over five heats leaving every 90 seconds. The slowest two swimmers are eliminated from each heat with the last surviving swimmer taking a very hard-earned cash prize after swimming five races in under eight minutes.

Sixteen-year-old Laura Littlejohn (St Paul's Swim Club) won the women's event over former Evolution Aquatics Tauranga swimmer Ruby Matthews, now swimming for the North Shore.

The other highlight was undoubtedly the stunning freestyle form of Littlejohn, who broke two New Zealand age-group records. Littlejohn won the Women's 100m Freestyle in 54.49 seconds and the Women's 200m Freestyle, where she swam a time of 1m 59.69s.

Bay of Plenty records were set by Evolution Aquatics Tauranga team's Keira Allott, who broke both the 400m and 800m freestyle records, the latter by more than eight seconds in 8m 50.27s.

The Evolution home team was assisted to the overall win by 14-year-old all-rounder Talitha McEwan, with the team's top-scorer making the podium in 10 events and taking out her overall age-group title as did Isaac Williams, 14, with a commanding six wins to his name and a close second in the junior Noxen Skins.

Other winners were Katie Hills in the 50m breaststroke along with Trelise Chote and Thomas Wilkinson in the 200m butterfly.

With the event in some doubt just a couple of months ago due to Covid-19, meet director Michael Pugh said the club and the sport has been blessed by the generosity of local businesses coming in at short notice.

"Noxen came on board as the major sponsor along with Holland Beckett, Legacy Funerals, BDO, Marwan Project Consultancy, Tauranga Precision Dental, Delloch Hip Protection, Snowden Electrical, TeamLine and the Tauranga Motor Company," he said.