Narrow miss for Pickett’s NZ team at Youth Olympic Games

Gisborne teenager Michael Pickett led off the New Zealand team in the 4x100 metres freestyle relay at the Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. He is pictured warming up for a race earlier this year at the NZ Open Swimming Championships. File photo loosens up before the men's 50m Freestyle race at the New Zealand Open swimming championships in Auckland last night. Picture by BW Media

GISBORNE swimmer Michael Pickett has had his first taste of competition at the Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.

Pickett, 16, led off the New Zealand team in the 4x100 metres freestyle relay.

He clocked 50.77 seconds for his leg as the team finished fourth in their heat and narrowly missed out on the eight-nation final.

They were ninth fastest overall.

Pickett is competing in two individual events this week — the 50 and 100m freestyle.

He is one of two Gisborne athletes among the 4000 from 206 nations at the Youth Olympics.

Azalleyah Maaka, 18, is in the New Zealand girls’ sevens team who compete this weekend. Her cousin through East Coast connections, Kalyn Takitimu-Cook, is also in the squad,

New Zealand face Tunisia, Colombia, France, Canada and Kazakhstan in pool play.