Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

'Magnificent effort' by Rotorua swimmers at AquaKnights Junior Festival

Rotorua Daily Post
19 Feb, 2018 10:14 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Swim Rotorua's juniors were dominant at the AquaKnights Junior Festival in Rotorua. Photo / Supplied

Swim Rotorua's juniors were dominant at the AquaKnights Junior Festival in Rotorua. Photo / Supplied

Swim Rotorua stole the show with a magnificent team effort at the AquaKnights Junior Festival for swimmers aged 12 and under.

The event, held at the Rotorua Aquatic Centre at the weekend, attracted 355 of the best junior swimmers from Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay, Poverty Bay, Taranaki and Waikato.

Swim Rotorua emerged victorious, crowned the AquaKnight champions with 5158 points and 42 medals.

Leading the charge was 12-year-old Theo Harvey who produced an impressive haul of five gold medals, in the 100m, 200m, 400m freestyle and the 50m and 200m butterfly.

Theo's best performance came in the 400m freestyle where he dominated from start to finish with a time of 4m 44.58s, qualifying him for national age group championships. Theo also took home four silver medals.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Aaron Muchirahondo, 11, also claimed a bagful of medals. Aaron did the triple in his signature breaststroke races, winning the 50m, 100m and 200m events. His best effort came in the 200m breaststroke with a time of 3m 6.89s. Not content with that, Aaron also produced a swift 50m backstroke to grab another gold, plus four bronze medals.

Rising star Kaia Joyce won eight medals. She managed the tough feat of winning silver and bronze medals in all the 50m events then went one better to win the 10-year-old girls' 200m medley race.

Kaia's other top three placings came in the 100m medley, and 100m and 200m freestyle. Older brother Miki Joyce produced a quality race to take the silver medal in the 11-year-old boys' 50m breaststroke.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Ngamihi Simpson gave it everything to secure 10 medals in the 11-year-old girls' age group. She grabbed the silver medal in the 200m backstroke, 100m butterfly, 100m and 200m breaststroke, and then another six bronze medals to demonstrate her ability to race any stroke at any distance.

Lina Stahlhut produced a cracking series of performances in the 12-year-old girls' age group to take home four bronze medals in the 200m and 400m freestyle, 100m and 200m backstroke.

Sam Trass showed he has an exciting future ahead, storming home to take an unexpected bronze medal in the 50m backstroke with a superb time of 34.84s.

In the 4x50m mixed medley relay, Linda, Aaron, Ngamihi and Theo combined to take the silver medal behind rivals Comet Swimming Club from Gisborne.

Discover more

Swim Rotorua celebrates junior success

02 Mar 05:15 PM

The other Swim Rotorua team members who performed admirably were Lizzie Avis, 11, Emma Balmer, 12, Naitarah Hunia, 10, Pheonix Hunia, 12, Ariel Muchirahondo, 8, Nikita Pola, 12, Ava Temain, 9, Stella Weston, 12, Taonga Wharekura, 11, and Dion Wright, 12.

Head coach Alastair Johnson was "extremely pleased" with his team's showing.

"Wow, everyone in the team stood up and raced their hearts out in every single event. We hoped that we could break into the top three clubs, but to take the champions title in such a dominant fashion is really exciting.

"I have no doubt that this young group of swimmers will continue to grow and improve together which augurs well for the future.

"We are a really close team, not just the swimmers who competed, but also with their teammates, their parents and of course our fantastic coaches Bronwen Radford and Claire Baylis. They both did such an amazing job in preparing the swimmers so that they could represent Rotorua in such fine style."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Sport

Rotorua Daily Post

Kea Kids News: The small rugby player making big moves

Watch
Rotorua Daily Post

Baywide rugby: Whaka look to break 19-year drought

Sport

Waikato boxers off to Australia for Commonwealth Games qualifier


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

Kea Kids News: The small rugby player making big moves
Rotorua Daily Post

Kea Kids News: The small rugby player making big moves

One to watch! Reporter Ollie is in Rotorua, where 12-year-old Kyro’s physical size is no match for his talent, tenacity, and dedication on the rugby field. Video / Kea Kids News

Watch
14 Jul 11:26 PM
Baywide rugby: Whaka look to break 19-year drought
Rotorua Daily Post

Baywide rugby: Whaka look to break 19-year drought

14 Jul 05:17 AM
Waikato boxers off to Australia for Commonwealth Games qualifier
Sport

Waikato boxers off to Australia for Commonwealth Games qualifier

14 Jul 02:21 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP