Inge de Bruin on the weekend continued her successful run in the pool - at Wanganui.
The Netherlands may have their triple-gold-medal-winning Inge de Bruijn, but New Zealand has its own Inge de Bruin. And the 15-year-old student from Stratford is also pretty handy in the water.
While the Dutch de Bruijn
capped a week in Sydney's Olympic pool with her third gold on Saturday, the New Zealand de Bruin was winning her 50m and 100m breaststroke events.
She was competing in the Grand Hotel and Function Centre West Coast Swimming Championships, qualifying for the division one national champs for the second year in a row.
The New Plymouth Girls' High School student has won the 14 and 15-year titles in both events in the past two years.
She came to Stratford with her family from Bloemfontein, South Africa, about four years ago. Like most of the world, she had never heard of her famous namesake until about 12 months ago.
She said it had been inspirational watching the Olympic swimming over the past week, and she would love to compete at the Olympics herself one day.
"It's going to take real hard work but I'm prepared to do it."
There is plenty of time, judging by the late blooming of the famous de Bruijn, who, at 27, had become internationally competitive only over the past year.
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