Swim stars of future bring home a medal

The unexpected bronze medal won by the Masterton club's boys medley relay ream was the highlight for the Swim Wairarapa team at the recent New Zealand 15 years and under age group championships .
The success of the team comprising Teina Hullena (backstroke), James Pope (breaststroke), Tim Smith (butterfly) and William Prior (freestyle) was the result of a number of important factors coming into play at once.
Firstly, for a club of Masterton's size it is relatively rare to be able to produce a team of such high level swimmers all in the same age group.
It is also reasonably rare to have all the strokes covered by swimmers talented in each individual discipline. Indeed such is the ability of the swimmers concerned they all could have swum more than one stroke with credit in this relay team.
A final factor was the huge determination of the team to succeed in this venture. It was a goal conceived as far back as last winter when they realised the possible effectiveness of their combination, and they trained as a unit at every opportunity.
So infectious was their enthusiasm they even enticed the national director of coaching, Clive Rushton, who happened to be at the Trust House Pool when they were practising, to take an interest and give them several training sessions.
Both Rushton, and their regular coach Jiri Mikolas, were delighted with their success which saw them take the bronze medal by a hair breadth's from a West Auckland Aquatics team coached by former Masterton swimmer Donna Bouzaid in a time which was 5secs quicker than they had ever managed before.
It was somewhat ironic that the Wairarapa team were staying with Bouzaid and that she acted as their coach, assisted by Doug Aplin.
The relay bronze was not, however, the only major talking point for Wairarapa at the championships. Several of their number made their first age group finals, 23 Wairarapa records fell and William Prior confirmed his place in the national squad by registering three qualifying times for that squad???16min 25.7secs for the 1500m freestyle, 4min 8.13secs for the 400m freestyle and 1min 57.70secs for the 200m freestyle.
His times for the 200m butterfly (2min 10.59secs) and 400m individual medley (4mins 49.03secs) were also very close to the qualifying mark.
Prior, 15, was swimming at the national age groups for the last time and he went out in a blaze of glory, winning gold medals in the 1500m, 400m and 200m freestyle events. The latter two victories were especially pleasing as he claimed the scalp of a rival who had beaten him the previous three years.
Prior won the 400m freestyle in decisive fashion but got home in the 200m freestyle by just 0.18secs, grabbing the lead in the last two metres. His time for that race was faster that Prior expected to achieve at these championships and bodes well for his continued development as a middle and long distance freestyler.
Prior also won silver medals in the 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley and in all of his events he broke the Wairarapa under-16 and senior records. He travels to Brisbane next month to contest the Australian age groups.
Another Masterton swimmer to fire at these national championships was 15-year-old James Pope.He was seeded fourth in the 50m breaststroke and sixth in the 200m breaststroke and swum exceptional races to win the silver medal in both and break the Wairarapa under-16 and senior records in the process
In his 100m breaststroke event Pope was originally seeded fifth and went into the final seeded second. He made a terrible start and at the 50m mark the chances of him winning a medal looked slim. But to his credit he fought his way back into the race to finish third and in a couple of more metres another silver medal could well have been his. Again he set a Wairarapa under-16 and senior record there as well.
Based on his results at the New Zealand age groups Donna Bouzaid invited Pope to join her West Auckland Aquatics squad travelling to Brisbane so he too will compete at the Australian age group championships next month.
Hinewai Voyce, 13m qualified to contest five finals at the championships and was eighth in the 800m freestyle in a time of 10mins 16.39secs.
In the 400m freestyle, a relatively new race for Voyce, she went from 23rd seed to win eighth place in the final. Her time was 4mins 50.28secs.
Similarly in the 200m individual medley she moved her original seeding position of 24 to end up in 10 th placing with a time of 2mins 37.44secs.
In the 50m breaststroke Voyce placed ninth in 37.99secs and broke her own Wairarapa under-14 record in the process. She also recorded qualifying times for the New Zealand open and Australian age group championships, a feat she repeated in the 100m breaststroke. There, her time of 1min 20.28secs broke the under-16 Wairarapa record set by Julie Workman in February, 1996.
Jade Aplin, 14, was swimming at national age groups for the second time, and she cemented her inclusion in the Wairarapa team with an excellent result in the 200m butterfly. Despite suffering from a head cole she managed to force her way into the final with a personal best time of 2min 38.73secs. Then in the final she perked up sufficiently to place sixth in 2mins 36.42secs.
Aplin also had pleasing results in her other events, movin from 17th seed to 11 th place in the 400m freestyle with a time of 4mins 50.75secs., placing 14 th in the 200m freestyle (2mins 19.20secs), eighth in the 800m freestyle (9mins 54.96secs) and 14 th in the 100m butterfly (1min 13.17secs).
Tim Smith, 14, was also returning to the national age groups for a second year and his best performance (apart from the relay) came in his strongest event, the 200m butterfly. He was up against powerful opposition there and was unlucky to finish out of the medals. His fourth placing bodes well for his participation at the Australian age group champs next month.
In the 400m freestyle Smith improved his seeding position from 26th to 14th and reduced his personal best time by 10secs in recording 4min 33.52secs.He also improved his seeding and time in the 50m backstroke (31.10secs) when he swam into eight place.
In the 400m individual medley Smith moved from 13th seed to sixth place and over the heat and final improved his entry time by over 11secs with a new personal best time of 5min 4.91secs.
Teina Hullena, 15, was swimming at the national age groups for the first time and added to his relay success with a finals berth in the 200m backstroke, moving from 10th seed to seventh with a time of 2min 43.43secs.
He has already qualified for the national youth championships in this event.
Hullena also swam in the 50m backstroke (31.56secs), 100 backstroke (1min 8.92secs), 400m individual medley (5min 24.73secs) and 100m breaststroke (1min 20.96secs) and considering the problems he has had with shoulder injuries his effort to win a relay medal was thoroughly deserved.
Katie Brasell, 15, another national age groups novice, could be well pleased with her results. She swam personal best times in all her events and moved up the seeding list with great strides. In the 200m backstroke she moved from 23rd seed to 15th place (2min 36.71secs), in the 100m backstroke she moved from 29th to 15th (1min 12.25secs) and in the 50m backstroke she recorded a time of 34.12secs, only 0.17secs off the Wairarapa under-16 record.
Like most of her team-mates Brasell has already swum qualifying times for the 2006 national youth championships.
The eighth member of the Wairarapa team, Alice Galbraith, 15, was also attended national age groups for the first time. Her participation centred on sprint races, which can be fickle and very dependant upon all the elements being perfect if personal best times are to be recorded.
She managed this objective in all her events and retained her seeding positions, something also difficult to do in sprints where splits of seconds can often see rankings go down several places. Galbraith swum 38.82secs in the 50m breaststroke, 33.44secs in the 50m butterfly and 1min 13.88secs in the 100km butterfly.
The four Wairarapa girls combined to create a regional relay team and they all swum personal best times to reduce their best times in both the freestyle and medley relays.
The outstanding results returned by the Wairarapa squad was simply further evidence of the talent being developed in the Wairarapa area and it will create added interest in the results of the division two team travelling to Hamilton for their championships this week and those attending the national youth (16-18yrs) championships in Wellington at the end of the month.