Carterton youngsters find short is sweet

Twenty medals, 56 top 10 placings and 67 personal best times........statistics which prove just how competitive Carterton Swimming Club members were at the recent Wellington short course championships.
It was an effort which placed Carterton third from 23 clubs in the team's competition and their star act was undoubtedly Katrina Simmonds, who was the top female swimmer in their 14ys age group She made the top four of all of her events and ended up with a hugely impressive medal haul of five gold, four silver and four bronze.
The full list of medal winners for Carterton was:-
Kendall Peterson (9yrs): Silver in 400m freestyle, bronze in 100m individual medley, 200m freestyle and 100m backstroke.
Joe Hammond (14yrs): Silver in 50m backstroke.
Amy Te Maro (9yrs): Silver in 100m butterfly.
Neil van Wijk: Silver in 50m breaststroke.
Katrina Simmonds (14yrs): Gold in 1200m butterfly, 200m breaststroke, 100m individual medley, 100m freestyle and 200m individual medley, silver in 200m butterfly, 200m backstroke, 50m butterfly and 200m freestyle, bronze in 100m breaststroke, 50m breaststroke, 100m backstroke and 50m freestyle.
Deserving of special mention were efforts of two youngsters competing in their major meet, Amy Te Maro ,9,breaking a Wairarapa record in the 100m butterfly and Sam Hammond,10, achieving three top 10 placings.
To date this season Carteron swimmers have broken 12 Wairarapa short course records, Amy Te Maro for the under-10 butterfly, Katrina Simmonds for the under-14 freestyle and 100m medley and under-16 100m butterfly and 100m medley,Joe Hammond for the under-14 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke and 100m backstroke and Neil van Wijk for the senior 200m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke and 50m breaststroke.
Those results are the culmination of many weeks of hard training under the supervision of coach Russell Geange.
Five Carterton swimmers, Grace Hammond, Katrina Simmonds, Joe Hammond, Charlotte Pope and Neil van Wijk, were all selected for recent Swim New Zealand age group development camps although van Wijk was unable to attend.
What's more ,11 swimmers from Carterton have qualified to contest the upcoming national spring championships in Christchurch from September 27 to 30 but due to other commitments only five will actually compete....Hannah Hammond, Katrina Simmonds, Joe Hammond, Carlin Peterson and Grace Hammond. They will participate in 25 events in all.
MASTERTON CLUB
The Mitch Tait Memorial carnival hosted by the Masterton Swimming Club saw the largest Masterton team compete for many years.
The pool was awashe with green caps as 27 Masteron swimmers aged between 8 nand 16 competed against swimmers from South Wairarapa, Wellington and Manawatu clubs. Members of the Masterton Masters club were also in action.
Overall the meet involved about 75 swimmers in a programme involving 68 races staged in a busy three hours.Masterton swimmers notched up 60 personal best times in their home pool, following up on a massive 196 personal best times recorded at the Wellington short course championships.
The men's and women's 15yrs and over Mitch Tait Memorial 100m breaststroke cups were won by Neil van Wijk of Carterton and Alice Fisher of Greytown while the boys and girls 100m relay events were won by Masterton teams.
The late Mitch Tait was a stalwart of the Masterton club who died suddenly while the original 25m five-lane indoor pool was being constructed.He was one of many club members who raised over $120,000 towards the pool costs and he also gave freely of his time in providing tuition at "learn to swim" programmes held by the Masterton and Featherston clubs.
Four Masterton senior swimmers have continued to train through the Wellington winter championships in preparation for the New Zealand spring competition to be held in Christchurch next week. Isaac Foote (16yrs), Ben Ruback (14), Tessa Foote (14) and William Hamilton (14) will contest 23 events between them in a new format which will see the introduction of a 13-14yrs age group
Isaac Foote has also been selected to attend the 2009 New Zealand youth and distance camp to be held in Christchurch from October 1 to 3.
Masterton head coach Anna Kitching is one of 11 coaches from throughout New Zealand attending that camp and she says it will be a challenging but exciting few days.
Kitching said spending time with coaches of the calibre of Jan Cameron, Trevor Nicholls, Don Talbot and Phillip Rush would provide insights and information which would be very beneficial to swimmers in the Masterton club.