Swimming: Strong showing places club in top 20

Otumoetai Swimming Club's 19th placed finish at the 2014 Mayfair Pools New Zealand Age Group Championships in Wellington was good enough to claim bragging rights among Bay of Plenty clubs. Front, from left: Rhianna Maxwell, Benji Rowe, Ruby Matthews; middle, from left, Danielle Spreadborough, Samantha Carter, George Cullin; back, from left: Damien Potts, Thomas Chaney, Josh Pickett. Photo/George Novak

A strong showing at the 2014 Mayfair Pools New Zealand Age Group Championships in Wellington has placed the Otumoetai Swimming Club within the top 20 clubs in the country.

The nine-strong team collected eight medals including five gold on the way to picking up 366 points and a 19th placed finish at the five-day event.

Josh Pickett (15) was the undoubted star for the small club - picking up a personal haul of three gold and one silver medal in a powerful series of performances.

His personal bests in claiming the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke titles included open Bay of Plenty records in the 100m and 200m, but it was perhaps his silver medal after being ranked 12th in the 200IM 15-year-old boys race that came as the biggest surprise.

Thomas Chaney (13) followed suit, winning gold in the 50m and 100m breaststroke on his way to setting Bay of Plenty records in both as well as the 200m breaststroke.

Like Pickett, he confounded expectations by improving his 16th ranking to take bronze in the 200IM.

Ruby Matthews (15) broke two Bay of Plenty records - missing bronze in the 100m breaststroke by 0.01s but winning silver in the 200m breaststroke.

In other results, Rhianna Maxwell (15) and Benji Rowe (14) both qualified for three finals, George Culling (14) swam four personal bests, Samantha Carter (14) recorded three top-10 finishes, Danielle Spreadborough (13) registered personal bests in all six events and Damian Potts placed fifth in the 200m fly finals for 15-year-olds.

Pickett, Matthews, Chaney, Rowe and Maxwell all qualified to compete at the Victorian Age Championships in Melbourne in December, with Pickett, Matthews and Chaney also selected to attend the New Zealand Development Camp in Rotorua in September.

Coach Stefan Swanepoel was thrilled with the performance of the largest team the club had sent to the champs in some years. "The standard was very high, so for our swimmers to stand out and then have our swimmers selected for a camp with the best young swimmers from around the country at a high level is amazing for them ... we've had very talented swimmers that have come through our programme ... but last year at this meet we had one medallist. For these guys to go in and claim five gold medals is just unreal. It's been a coach's dream week, really."

Swanepoel said the breaststroke craze that has gripped his pool is a fairly recent phenomenon that is easily explained.

"Josh Pickett has set such an example of what can be done in breaststroke and his clubmates are following suit."