Wairarapa swimmers chase age group glory

Eight Wairarapa swimmers left yesterday for the New Zealand age group (15 and under) swiming championships in Christchurch.
This championship, to be held in the QE II pool, will be attended by overseas teams and promises to provide some tough competition for NZ swimmers.
Four of the Wairarapa swimmers are attending for the first time: Katie Brasell (15), Alice Galbraith (15), Teina Hullena (15) and James Pope (15). The other four returning to these champs include Jade Aplin (14), Hinewai Voyce (13), Tim Smith (14) and William Prior (15).
The seedings enjoyed by these swimmers indicate that a number of medals are in the offering and that Wairarapa swimmers will feature in the finals sessions each night.
The Masterton Club boys relay is seeded fifh in the 200m medley relay and they have been practising their technique to try and reduce their time by the 2 seconds between them and the bronze medal seed.
At the weekend they were delighted to find the NZ coach visiting the Genesis Electric Recreational Centre while they were practising and he took them through their paces on Saturday and invited them back on Sunday for a further session.
William Prior, a member of the New Zealand squad will be looking to confirm his selection at these championships, especially in his main events the 1500m freestyle, 400m freestyle and 200m fly. He is also keen to do well in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle, 50m and 100m fly, and the 200 IM and 400 IM.
Tim Smith is another with a large work load and has his eyes firmly on making finals. His main events are 50m,100m and 200m backstroke and his programme also includes 50m and 100m fly, 200m, 400m, and 1500m freestyle and both the 200 IM and 400 IM.
James Pope is swimming in the three breaststroke events in the 50m, 100m and 200m distances as well as both the individual medleys ? 200 IM and 400IM.
Hinewai Voyce is another with a good mix of distances and strokes and she is competing in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke where she has enjoyed success at national level before, the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle and 200IM.
Jade Aplin is concentrating on her fly and freestyle and will compete in the 100m and 200m fly, and 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle.
Teina Hullena, has an eclectic mixture of events which includes 50m, 100m 200m backstroke, 100m breaststroke and 400IM.
Katie Brasell, another backstroker, will compete in the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke, while Alice Galbraith, a sprinter is competing in the 50m breast, 50m fly and 100m fly.
All of these swimmers have recently competed in their school swimming sports and the intercollegiate swimming sports where they swam with distinction. They are part of a talented group of 24 secondary school aged swimmers who will travel to national meets over the next two months and the recent school and intercollegiate results show that they are all on target to swim at peak performance.