Swimming: Pneumonia no obstacle for medallist

Arianna Wright (left), Gus Andrews and Michael Lansdown with their medals. PHOTO/Warren Buckland

Hawke's Bay's Michael Lansdown was far from well when he travelled to last week's national junior swimming championships in Wellington.

"I was scheduled to compete in eight events but I reduced my workload to three targeting races I hoped to medal in," the Napier Aquahawks swimmer recalled.

On Day 2 of the three-day meet he visited a doctor again and discovered he had been nagged by pneumonia for the previous four days. Despite this obstacle, Lansdown, 10, travelled home with one silver medal and one bronze and was one of three Hawke's Bay swimmers to feature among the medal winners.

The Hereworth School Year 6 pupil, who has been swimming competitively for two years, won silver in the 10 year boys 200m breaststroke with a time of 3m21.29s and bronze in his 50m breaststroke final after stopping the clock at 43.68s. Lansdown also finished sixth in his 100m breaststroke final in 1m38.40s.

He is unsure how long he will remain in the swimming ranks, as he is also a handy cricketer and rugby player. A bowler, Lansdown captains his school's Stags A cricket team and last year was a member of the unbeaten Hastings East C grade rugby team.

"I know I'm going to have to decide to specialise in one of the three codes in the future ... in the meantime I will continue to do all three as swimming benefits the other two," Lansdown added.

His clubmate, Arianna Wright, and Greendale's Gus Andrews were medal winners at the championships for the second consecutive year. Andrews won gold in his 12 year boys 50m breaststroke in a Hawke's Bay Poverty Bay record time of 37.96s, gold in his 100m breaststroke final in 1m24.64s, silver in his 200m breaststroke final in 3m01.54s and bronze as a member of the HBPB 12-and-under medley relay team.

The Havelock North Intermediate School Year 8 student, who ranked the 50m breaststroke as his preferred event, also finished fifth in his 200m individual medley final.

Like Wright, Andrews has been selected in a national junior development squad to attend a clinic in Rotorua during June. The squad contains 11 and 12-year-old medal winners from the nationals. A 1st XI cricketer at his school, Andrews, is also a 12th-grade rugby player for Havelock North and has targeted Ross Shield selection this year.

Wright, 11, returned home with three golds and two silvers. The Iona College Year 8 pupil won gold in her 50m breaststroke final breaking her previous HBPB record by more than one second with a time of 36.80s, another in her 100m breaststroke final in a HBPB record time of 1m 20.75s which bettered the previous record set 10 years ago by more than three seconds, and her third in her 200m breaststroke final in a HBPB record time of 2m 55.46s, beating her previous record by 4s.

Her silvers were won in the 100m freestyle and 200m freestyle with respective times of 1m 07.43s and 2m 25.16s. Despite having a 100 per cent success rate with personal bests,

Wright - who is nicknamed "Ari the Ferrari" because of her speed in the pool - wasn't entirely happy with the meet. "I didn't see the swimmer who passed me in the 200m freestyle final because I was in the middle of the pool and she was two or three lanes away."

Like Andrews and Lansdown, Wright will have a rest from the pool before preparing for the July East Coast and HBPB champs. During this spell, she can focus on her Hawke's Bay netball development squad commitments.