Swimming: Planning pays dividends for organisation

Northwave's Melita Raravula was again the Northland Swimmer of the Year. Photo/John Stone.

Swimming Northland has just completed another busy but successful season across all its areas of operation.

Swimming Northland is now in the last year of its three-year strategic plan, and in support of its vision of being "Bigger and Better - impact in and out of the water", has the goals in the following areas: leadership, club development, events, relationships and finance.

Under leadership, it was gratifying to see that a national review of the sport was undertaken by Sport New Zealand in the past 12 months, and this has resulted in what looks like a more unified approach from Swimming New Zealand and its member regions. This will include a generic constitution for each region, something that should provide a better guiding document for Swimming Northland.

Development of swimming clubs in Northland has been led by Sport Northland, given Swimming Northland has limited resources at its disposal. From relationship manager Janine Moy to her group of community sports advisers, the Sport Northland team has been working closely with seven of the 14 active clubs in Northland.

Events are a real strength of Swimming Northland, and this last year was no exception. The organisation ran five regional events, including the flagship event, the Douglas Logging Northland Age Group Championships, which were again held in Dargaville during January.

Along with club meets, these events give our young up-and-coming competitive swimmers the chance to hone their skills and try to qualify for national championships.

Northland swimmers once again achieved highly on the national, and even international, stage during the season.

Northwave's Melita Raravula was again the Northland Swimmer of the Year, winning 10 national medals and being selected to represent the NZ age group team at the Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney.

Freyah Ruri, of Northwave, and Bay of Islands' Daniel Gaualofa were the other top achievers, with Freyah winning 12 national medals and Daniel eight. Both joined Melita and Haydn Jurisich, of Bay of Islands, in representing Northland at the New Zealand Open Champs. Daniel won five silver medals and two bronze medals in the Athlete with a Disability category at these Open Championships, while Melita made three A finals with a best placing of sixth.

Other Northlanders to win national medals in their top championships during the season included the Northwave duo of Ellie Eastwood and Mia Gordon, as well as Whangarei's Samantha Bailey, who all medalled at the New Zealand Junior Champs.

The development of officials in Northland also continued to a high level.

At away meets it's fantastic to see that, compared to other regions, we still seem to rate highly in the standard and number of officials as well as the organisation of swimming meets.

Lastly, my thanks to everyone connected with swimming in Northland for another great year.

The sport remains in good heart thanks to a fantastic group of volunteers.