SWIMMING: Gillies shows real talent

SHANE HURNDELL
With committed youngsters such as Napier Aquahawk Ben Gillies it's not surprising the balance of power in Hawke's Bay-Poverty Bay swimming has shifted south.
Fourteen-year-old Gillies was among the successful Napier Aquahawks who won the trophy for the top club as well as the junior aggregate trophy at the Hawke's Bay-Poverty Bay championships which ended in Gisborne last night.
Gillies, who won the 14-years boys age group as well as the trophy for the most points recorded by a male in the 14 and 15 years section, swum in 24 races during the four days he was at the five-day champs. Like so many of the Aquahawks, Gillies juggles his swimming commitments with surf lifesaving.
"Hopefully I can continue to keep doing both ... I don't want to decide between the two," said the Napier Boys' High School year 10 student as he travelled home from Gisborne this morning.
Although naturally feeling "a little tired" after his feats Gillies will have a swimming training session tomorrow as well as paddle in the surf as part of his buildup for this weekend's northern regional surf lifesaving championships in Mount Maunganui. The first-year under-16 competitor in surf will be almost as busy at the Mount as he was in Gisborne.
"I'll be going in the board, swim, ski and ironman as well as a few team events," he told SportToday.
Fellow Aquahawk and Westshore lifeguard Lydia Diver won the 14 years girls age group as well as the trophy for the top female in the 14 and 15 years section. Diver joined Zandra Danvers, Avril Turvey and Amy Vaughan in the Aquahawks 4 x 100m freestyle open women's relay team which won what Primo Sundevils coach and former New Zealand coach Jon Winter described as "the race of the champs."
This quartet beat Hamilton by .01 of a second and a Sundevils quartet finished .09 of a second back in third place. Danvers travelled home with the trophy for the top 16-year-old girl as well as the one for the fastest 800m freestyle female swimmer.
Jasper Murphy in the nine years boys and Sam Chadwick in the 10 years boys were Aquahawks other age group winners. Combined Aquahawks and Greendale teams also won the inter-city relay trophy for boys and girls teams.
"With Aquahawks the top club and our Sundevils winning the most titles the balance of power has definitely shifted away from Gisborne. And with the number of promising youingsters coming through it should stay her for a long time to come," Winter said.
"We had one of our weakest teams for a while but our youngsters still exceeded my expectations," said Winter who withdrew from his coaching job with the New Zealand team at the Youth Olympics in Sydney to travel with his team to Gisborne.
Missing from his team from last year were Daniel Bell and Clair Benson, who are in Sydney, Blair Withington, who is in the United States, Paul Benson, who is about to move to Australia, and Andrew Dynan, Tim Dawson and Katie Bone ,who are all Auckland-based.
Despite the absence of such talented swimmers the Sundevils retained the senior medley relay cup and the senior male 4 x 100m freestyle relay cup.
The Sundevils also won the 11 and under mixed freestyle relay cup, the shield for the top 13 years and under swimmers and the shield for the mixed female relays. For the fourth consecutive year the Sundevils retained the 6 x 50m male and female relay cups.
To add to the Sundevils' celebrations Clair Benson was judged the Hawke's Bay-Poverty Bay junior swimmer of the year in the 14 years and under age group.
While Gisborne may have lost the balance of power Emily Thomas from Gisborne's Comet club won the award for the Swimmer of the Year.
It will be interesting to see if a Hawke's Bay swimmer has that trophy this time next year. If the past five days are an indication it's highly likely.