Swim Rotorua's National Age Group Swimming Championships team with coach Aidan Withington.
Swim Rotorua's National Age Group Swimming Championships team with coach Aidan Withington.
The future is looking exciting and bright for Swim Rotorua, as a team of young swimmers achieved great results at the National Age Group Championships recently.
Swim Rotorua had a strong team of seven swimmers representing the club at the championships, held at the Hawkes Bay Aquatic Centre in Hastings.
The club achieved over 80 per cent personal best times, ranked as the top club in the Bay of Plenty region, the second provincial club (centres without a university) and 17th overall, which is the club’s second-best performance of all time.
The meet attracted 450 swimmers aged between 13 and 18.
Coach Aidan Withington is very excited about what the next few years have to offer, as the swimmers are still young.
Ariel Muchirahondo,14, raced in eight individual events and won gold in seven - the 100-metre butterfly, 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 800m freestyle (BoP record), 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley (BoP record) and 200m backstroke. He also achieved a silver medal in the 100m backstroke event.
Aidan says: “Ariel is a very hardworking and diligent athlete with plenty of potential. Since Ariel had only just turned 14, this was an outstanding result.”
Ariel had some very tough swims at the meet, including back-to-back events in the 200m backstroke and 400m medley on the third day.
“Ariel and I planned his events and targeted to have a tougher day at the event, since he had very strong swims.”
Leo English, 13, raced seven individual events and won silver in the 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 800m freestyle and 1500m freestyle. He also finished sixth in the 100m freestyle and seventh in the 50m breaststroke events.
“Leo has made huge improvements over the last six months, and it was great to see these results in podium finishes,” Aidan says.
Finley English, 15, raced three individual events and won bronze in the 50m breaststroke. He also finished fourth in the 200m breaststroke and sixth in the 100m breaststroke.
(From left): Ariel Muchirahondo, Finley English, Aidan Withington (coach) and Leo English with their medals at the championships.
Aidan says Finley’s breaststroke has really started to develop.
“He has taken huge strides - he is a very smart athlete, and I look forward to seeing where this gets him over the next 12 months.”
Other swimmers to make finals were Ngamihi Simpson, 16, who finished eighth in her 200m freestyle event, and Samuel Trass, 17, who finished seventh in the 17-18 age group. Unfortunately, Sam became unwell and was unable to compete in his last event.
In addition, the 15 and under boys’ team finished ninth in the 4x100m freestyle event. Making up the team were Ariel Muchirahondo, Leo English, Leonard Rankin and Kai Jung-Ishida.
Coach Aidan was happy with this result, as all the swimmers will be in the same age group next year and a medal will be within reach. The 15 and under boys’ 4x100 medley team finished seventh - the team consisted of Leonard Rankin (backstroke), Ariel Muchirahondo (butterfly), Finley English (breaststroke) and Kai Jung-Ishida (freestyle).
Upon returning from the nationals, the swimmers will have a rest before aiming towards the New Zealand Secondary Schools and New Zealand Short Course Championships. They will finish off the year by attending the Victoria State Championships in December.
Aidan says: “This was a very strong result from the club. It is now very important for us to grow and nourish our younger swimmers coming through. I am very excited to be working more with our junior swimmers and our strong coaching team”.
