Swimming: McIntosh earns NZ call

Hayley McIntosh has been selected to race at the biennial Junior Pan Pacific Championships. Photo / BW Media

Northland swimmer Hayley McIntosh has been named by Swimming New Zealand in a 10-strong team to contest the biennial Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Hawaii.

The championships will be held in Maui, Hawaii, on August 24-28.

They involve the four Pan Pac Charter nations of Canada, USA, Australia and Japan along with other Pacific Rim countries including New Zealand.

McIntosh, from the Northwave club in Kamo, will swim in the 400m and 800m freestyle.

She is Northland's first representative to the Junior Pan Pacs in recent memory and was one of only eight swimmers in the NZ Age Group Championships in Wellington last week to qualify.

Four Northland swimmers won a total of eight medals in their age groups in Wellington, with Educare Northland Sports Talent Hub members McIntosh and Ciara Smith (both from Northwave) leading the way, both with two gold medals.

The other Northland medallists were Annabell Simpson and Jeremy Elliott (both Northwave).

McIntosh won gold in the 400m and 800m girls' 17/18 years free and silver in the 200m.

Smith won gold in both the girls' 15 years 50m and 100m breaststroke events and was only 7/100ths of a second off breaking the girls' 15 years 50m national age group record.

In the boys' 14 years Elliott won silver in the 200m butterfly and bronze in the 100m butterfly, and recorded three other top 10 finishes, while Simpson (girls' 15 years) came home with a bronze in the 200m backstroke as well as two other top-five finishes (fifth in the 50m backstroke and 100m backstroke).

Other top five finishers were:

- Mia Gordon (Northwave) girls' 12/13 years - 4th 50m breaststroke and 100m breaststroke and two other top 10 finishes

- Isabelle Paton (Bream Bay) girls' 16 years - 4th in 100m breaststroke and two other top 10 finishes

- Matthew Gordon (Northwave) boys' 17/18 years - fifth in 50m backstroke and 200m backstroke and one other top 10 finish

- Paul Linton (Bream Bay) boys' 15 years - 5th 100m backstroke and two other top 10 finishes

Northland swimmers to finish in the top 10 in their events included Bream Bay's Kieran Swords and Conor Swords. Other Northlanders to compete were Conor Willy (Dargaville), Hayley Donovan (Northwave), Emma Wickham (Bream Bay) and Courtney Matich, Cameron Ludgate and Toby Lengyel (Whangarei).