Swimmers turn in top efforts

Wairarapa swimmers achieved stunning results at the New Zealand College Games which finished in Hamilton on Tuesday, their medal haul being 11 golds, seven silvers and 10 bronze.
In addition they also established five new records for this particular meet,
Despite still recovering from a serious netball injury Ashley McDougall, 15, of St Matthew's Collegiate was in dominating form.
She opened the Games with a silver medal in the very first event and closed off with a bronze in the last of the races
And in between she won gold medals in the 50m butterfly, 100m butterfly, 200m freestyle and 100m freesytyle.
Her times in three of these events were new Games records?.the 50m butterfly in 30.36secs, the 200m freestyle in 2mins 12.80secs and the 100m freestyle in 1min 3.7secs.
McDougall's silver medal came in the women's open 400m freestyle where she was competing against girls of all ages and she returned a personal best time of 4min 34.42secs . Her bronze came in the open 200m butterfly.
She also bettered her own Wairarapa records in the 400m freestyle (under-16 and senior), 50m butterfly (under-16) and 100m butterfly (under-16).
William Prior, 15, of Rathkeale College won two gold, two silver and one bronze medals and also captured one Games record.
In the men's open 200m butterfly event he beat a number of 17 and 18-year-olds to win gold in a slick 2mins 16.43secs and he also won the 100m butterfly by more than a body length in a Games record time of 1min 3.9secs.
Prior's silver medals came in the open 400m freestyle (4min 19.11secs) and the 200m freestyle in a personal best and Wairarapa under-16 record time of 2min 2.53secs. His bronze medal was in the 100m freestyle (57.15secs).
After the Games Prior moved onto Auckland where he and teammate Tyson hullena are training with top New Zealand coach Donna Bouzaid (formerly of Wairarapa) before contesting the national short course championships over the weekend.
James Pope,15, also of Rathkale College, showed his dominance in breaststroke, winning a medal in all three of his events. He won the 100m with a new personal best and Games record time of 1min 13.66secs and the 200m in another personal best time of 2min 42.30secs which represents a new Wairarapa under-16 record. He was second over 50m , an event in which he swam pb's in both the heat and final
Hinewai Voyce, 13, of St Matthew's Collegiate also shone in breaststroke, breaking her Wairarapa under-14 records in all of her events. She won the gold medal in the 200m in a time of 2min.57.71secs.and bronze medals in the 100m (1min 23.08secs) and the 50m (38.09secs). In the 50m event she was only 0..02secs behind the second placegetter.
Franceso Ghinami, an exchange student from Sardinia in Italy who is at Wairarapa College, won the gold medal in the 100m freestyle in a time of 1min 2.85secs. She also won a silver medal in the 50m freestyle in 29.17secs, and a silver in the 200m freestyle (2min 14.99secs).
Sprinter Tamara Gray, 16, from Kuranui College won medals in all four sprint events. She was placed first in the 50m freestyle in 28.97secs, third in the 50m backstroke in 33.38secs, and third in both the 50m butterfly (31.76secs) and 50m breaststroke (39.23secs). Her time in the 50m backstroke broke the Wairarapa senior women's record set by Jolie Workman in 1997.
Tim Smith, 14, of Rathkeale College was a silver medallist in the 200m backstroke in a new personal best time of 2min 23.46secs, which was also a new Wairarapa under-16 record. He was third in the 100m backstroke in 1min 7.25secs, after setting a personal best time by 3secs in the heats of 1min 6.83secs.
Alice Galbraith, 15, of St Matthew's Collegiate was the narrowest of fourths in the 100m breaststroke but struck back with a third placing in the 50m backstroke in a time of 39.22secs.
Bridget Maher, 16, from St Matthew's Collegiate, was third in the 200m freestyle in a personal best time of 2min 23.6secs, edging her even closer to a qualifying time foir the national youth championships.
Chanel College was ably represented by brothers Tyson (16yrs) and Teina (14yrs) Hullena who were both unlucky to miss out on the medals. Tyson made several finals in both the open and under-16yrs age group while Teina finished close fourths in both the 200m and 100m backstroke events.
Jesse Bucknell, 17, of Wairaraa College contested the duathlon on the first day of competition and then made the final of the 200m backstroke.
Henry Brown, 14, also from Wairarapa College, made the 100m butterfly final.
Many of the Wairarapa swimmers will feature in television coverage of the College Games and a number were interviewed as well.
There was wide recognition that their results certainly outweighed the size of the region and the size of their actual team.