Tasmin Henricksen and Jack Fenemor have to travel 828km for their swimming training each week.
From their tiny rural town Pongaroa in the Tararua district to swimming pools in Dannevirke and Palmerston North.
And then back home again.
“I’ve gotten used to it,” Tasmin said.
“When you’re going to do something you really enjoy, you don’t think about the travel, you think about how much fun you’re going to have.”
This week all that travel and training has been worth it for the the two students from Pongaroa School.
Tasmin and Jack are representing all 58 pupils of their school at the Zespri Aims Games in Tauranga, competing alongside nearly 13,000 other young athletes from more than 390 schools around the country and overseas.
Tasmin, 11, has been swimming seriously for the past couple of years while Jack, 12, only started dabbling in competitive swimming in the autumn of this year, qualifying for the 200m freestyle two weeks ago.
“Other kids take up gaming but I like the swimming,” Tasmin said.
She first learnt to swim at 6 months old. Her mum Erin said swimming was an essential life skill when you live on a sheep and beef farm with many dams and troughs.
All the travel to and from training doesn’t seem to bother Tasmin either.
Erin said she and her husband wanted to provide their girls with as many opportunities as possible.
“It keeps them healthy, gives them a chance to learn as a team, learn their limits and push their limits.”
Tasmin started getting serious about swimming when she was 9.
Local coaches told her it would be best if she joined the Palmerston North Amateur Swimming Club – which is 96km away.
The family initially took her to the pool in Dannevirke – 51km away – but Tasmin eventually transferred to the Palmerston North club after significantly improving after several swimming camps.
The coaches at the club understood she couldn’t travel all that way for all the training and so allowed her to do some sessions in Dannevirke but still compete under the club name.
It all adds up to about six hours of training and 12 hours of driving each week, with two sessions at each location.
It’s lucky Tasmin loves being active.
“I like being able to be free,” she said.
She also does acro dance – a mix of dance and gymnastics – on Saturdays, and contemporary dance on Tuesdays after swimming.
In Term 2 she picks up netball on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and hockey on Friday nights.
“I find if I don’t stay active, I can get cranky.”
Tasmin was excited by the idea of the Aims Games and said it had been “a cool experience”.
She achieved personal best times in her first four races, which she credited to more people and stronger competition.
The road to the Aims Games has been quite different for her schoolmate Jack.
Not only is competitive swimming new to him but so is competitive sport of any kind, after years of not participating due to sore ankles.
His mum, Ruth, initially put it down to growing pains, but they eventually found and treated enormous pressure in his pelvis which was causing the pain in his ankles.
It was linked to him falling off a pony when he was 6.
Since starting competitive swimming earlier this year, Jack’s been training twice a week in the pool in Dannevirke.
The Year 8 student has gone from strength to strength and he’s not only swimming in Tauranga this week – he also competed in the cross country event on Sunday.
Jack said being pain-free is “amazing” – and so is being at the Zespri AIMS Games.
The Aims Games, an intermediate-aged multisport event for 10–13-year-olds, has become one of the largest youth sporting competitions in the Southern Hemisphere, this year running from September 7-13.
The tournament is so large that the hosts held two opening ceremonies at Mercury Baypark Arena; both are vibrant celebrations of youth sports, culture, and community spirit.
Firefighters are keeping a close watch to ensure the piles of debris do not reignite.
