Swimming: Bianca Donelley delights at nationals

Bianca Donelley will attend a junior national swim camp in Rotorua after age-group success in Wellington.

Young swimmer Bianca Donelley will spearhead the local performance later this year at a national Junior Swim Camp in Rotorua after producing two age-group wins in Wellington.

The Junior National Championships saw Donelley pick up 100m and 200m freestyle titles for 11-year-old girls, enabling the Swim Rotorua competitor to attend the national swim camp in June.

Bianca is one of a handful of young swimmers fast-tracked for high performance during the past six months, and gives club Swim Rotorua fresh prospects since restructuring a year ago.

Three athletes made the long trip to the Wellington Regional Swimming Centre in Kilbirnie at the weekend and all achieved notable performances and best times.

Bianca was in sensational form to dominate her signature events. Her mature race tactics in the girls' 11 years 200m freestyle saw her take the lead after the halfway mark with a courageous third lap. Bianca managed to stay strong and hold on to take a well deserved victory with a new Bay of Plenty record with a time of 2 mins 21.16 secs. Bianca maintained her form through to her last race of the championships with a stunning win the 100m freestyle. Despite turning in second pace at the 50m turn, Bianca produced a devastating kick to turn on the speed and notch up her first national victory at this event. Her time of 1m 5.50s was a best time by 3 seconds and was just outside the Bay of Plenty record.

Bianca picked up the bronze medal in the girls 11 years' 50m freestyle with another best time of 30.57s. It was a very close race and she finished only 0.2s away from gold. Further top 10 placings came in the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke and in the 200m medley. Bianca also lined up with her Bay of Plenty teammates to help the relay quartet take 11th and 13th place in the girls 12 years and younger 4 x 50m freestyle relay and the 4 x 50m medley relay.

As a result of her medal-winning performances, Bianca has been selected to attend a Swimming New Zealand National Junior Camp in Rotorua in June.

Racing at her first national championships was 10-year-old Otonga School student Milla Theobald. Milla displayed her trademark tenacity and skill to achieve a big personal best in the 200m medley with a time of 3m 13.28s. She produced a great 200m backstroke with another big improvement to set a time of 3m 12.14s.

Milla also competed in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle, 50m and 100m butterfly. Her best placing came in the 100m butterfly where she placed 14th overall.

Ten-year-old Emily Spear was racing at her first national championships too. Emily put in some sterling efforts to produce four excellent performances, with the best one coming in the 200m freestyle. She dug in deep to smash her best time by over 4s to go 2m 48.05s. Emily also excelled in her favourite breaststroke events where she broke into the top 32 in the 100m and 200m distances. Emily also competed in the 50m butterfly where she placed 37th overall.