Swimming: Camp call-up for Donnelly

Bianca Donnelly, 12, of Swim Rotorua, gained 800m silver.

Swim Rotorua enjoyed a successful national age-group championships in Wellington last week, with all six of the team's racers gaining a top-10 placing.

Leading the way with an impressive haul of 106 points and three medals was 12-year-old Bianca Donnelly.

The Chapman College student took silver in the 800m freestyle, coming in just 0.1 seconds away from gold: her time of 9mins 39.81secs set a Bay of Plenty record.

Other BOP records fell to Bianca in the 50m freestyle (28.48s), 100m freestyle (1m 01.14s) and in the 200m backstroke (2m 31.04s).

After those performances, she has been selected to attend the Swimming New Zealand Age Group Camp in October.

Joining Bianca on the SNZ Age Group Camp will be 14-year-old David Boles, who also enjoyed a successful nationals campaign.

David saved his best for the last day to pick up the bronze medal in the tough 1500m freestyle, where he dipped under the 18-minute mark for the first time. His time of 17m 53.13s was a best time by 18 seconds.

The young swimmer showed his flair in the backstroke events, making every final. His best placing came in the 200m backstroke, where a personal best time of 2m 17.50s gave him fourth spot. His other final placings came in the 50m backstroke (8th place), 100m backstroke (7th) and in the 400m medley (9th).

There were also strong performances from Paddy Baylis, Rachel Mead, William Spear and Jack Weston.

Swim Rotorua head coach Alastair Johnson said he was delighted with the results.

"We have trebled our medals, points and top 10 placings from 2014. Not only that, we have placed two athletes on the SNZ Camps and three athletes have made the very tough qualifying times to represent the AquaKnights.

The athletes will now enjoy a well-deserved short break before we head into the intensive short course season."