Swimming: Young athletes come up trumps

Milla Theobald showing her form which gave her 10 gold medals at the weekend. Photo/Stephen Parker.

Swim Rotorua enjoyed a very successful Bay of Plenty Junior Swimming Championships at the weekend. The biggest Bay junior swim meet of the year was at the Rotorua Aquatic Centre. Despite the changeable, windy weather and the heavy rain on Saturday afternoon, the Swim Rotorua young athletes came up trumps.

Grabbing the headlines was 10-year-old Otonga School student Milla Theobald who won a staggering 10 gold medals. Milla was in fine form at the Auckland Junior Championships last week, but blew that away with an impressive range of performances across different strokes and distances. Milla dominated her age group with victories in the 50, 100 and 200 metres butterfly, 50, 100, 200 and 400m freestyle, 100 and 200m backstroke and the 200m individual medley. The best of the lot came in the 100m butterfly where Milla stormed away from the rest of the field with a great time of 1 minute 36 seconds.

Fellow squad mate Bianca Donelley was also successful in taking the 11-year-old titles in the 50 and 100m freestyle, and 100 and 200m backstroke. Bianca also picked up silver medals in the 200 and 400m medley, and 200 and 400m freestyle.

Ronan McKenzie, 9, jumped on the podium with a superb silver medal in the 50m breaststroke with a time of 55.90s. Older brother Tarquin McKenzie had four races all in the top 10, placing 5th overall in the 200m breaststroke.

Samantha Irving showed determination in all her races, in particular in the girls 11 years 100m butterfly where she took silver in 1.39.68. She followed that up with a surprise bronze in the 100m freestyle. Fellow squad mate Sophie Smallbone showed she is one to watch despite only taking up racing a few months ago. Sophie achieved best times in all her five races.

Making his competitive debut was 11-year-old Benjamin Keaney. His tenacity paid off with a bronze medal in the 50m backstroke with a time of 46.26s.

Jude Carpenter underlined his promise with some great performances, especially in the backstroke events where he picked up three bronze medals in the 50, 100 and 200m backstroke. Fellow 12-year-old teammate James Baldwin picked up a haul of five silvers in the 50, 100 and 200 breaststroke and the 200 medley and 200m freestyle. Competing in the same age group for the girls was Alyssa Carnell who raced her heart out with a 4th place in the 200m breaststroke.

Lynmore School student Josh Balmer exceeded all expectations with gold medals in the boys 9 years 50m butterfly, 200m freestyle and 200m breaststroke. He also picked up four silver medals (50 and 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke and 100m breaststroke). Emily Spear built on her recent exploits at the Auckland Juniors with some fine efforts, most notably in the 200m freestyle and the 100m breaststroke where she grabbed the silver medal. Stepping up was 11-year-old Regan Taikato who pushed himself to the limit with four top 10 placings with the best coming in the 200m medley with 4th place.

Swim Rotorua took home one more medal which came in the boys 12 years and younger 4 x 50 metres freestyle relay. James Baldwin, Josh Balmer, Benjamin Keaney and Jude Carpenter combined well to win silver.

Whilst our more experienced athletes like Milla and Bianca get noticed, it is the new juniors coming through that makes it really satisfying.

Alastair Johnson is the head swimming coach at Swim Rotorua.