CMK Stratford Flyers had a team of 8 swimmers qualify and attend the New Zealand National Springs Championship on Auckland's North Shore at the new AUT Millennium purpose built pool from the August 11 to 15.
The competition runs age group finals in the morning for medals and rankings and then grouped age group finals at night. The team swum tremendously well on the back of three weeks training out of the Hawera pool to gain one national record, five Taranaki records, five individual medals with another 3 relay team medals, places in the finals and many personal best times. Three swimmers moved into the top 5 in New Zealand for their ages which is an excellent step forward for these up and coming champions.
Joshua Gilbert broke the 14 year old boys New Zealand short course record for the 200 breast stroke and now holds 3 New Zealand records over various strokes and distances. Having just turned 14 this was an exciting outcome of a well swum race. Also a Taranaki Record. New NZ record time is now 2.20.67, old NZ record was Erik Kahr at 2.20.92, Taranaki Record was Elliot Lundon-Moore's at 2.23.78.
Joshua's other Taranaki records for the 14-15 year old age group came in the 100 Breaststroke, new time 1.05.89, old time 1.06.55 (Elliot Lundon-Moore). In the 200 IM Joshua broke the Taranaki Record in the morning finals and then swum faster at night to break it again, new time 2.09.89 (old time 2.14.34 was Chris Johnson's.)
Claudia Taylor broke two Taranaki Records. The first one in 50m Freestyle, an exciting race were she was required to 'swim off' for a finals spot were her and another swimmer raced, the result of this swim off was exactly the same time for both girls of 27.59 (Taranaki Record). They were then given 2 mins recovery time and required to swim again. This time Claudia pulled ahead and won the swim off. Old Taranaki Record 28.03 Jenna Barrett's. Her second Taranaki record came in the 100 Free where she bettered her old record of 1.01.12 to go 1.00.84 on the last day.
Top ten results. Joshua Gilbert 14 years 1st 100 Breast, 400 IM, 200 IM, 200 Breast, 3rd 100 Free, 5th 100 Fly. Claudia Taylor 13 years 4th in the 50 Free, 100 free, 400 Free and 5th 200 Free. Zarhn Collins 15 years 4th 50 Breast, 100 Breast, 200 Breast, 7th 100 IM and 10th 50 Fly. Lauree Collins 13 years 5th 50 Breast and 9th 100 Breast. Chris Johnson 15 years 6th 200 IM, 7th 100 Fly, 8th 400 IM, 9th 100 Freestyle and 10th 200 Freestyle. Brittany Taylor 16 years 7th 100 Back, 7th 800 Freestyle and 9th 200 Back. Top rankings Bailee Drummond 16th 200 Back and 800 Free, and Zoe Williamson 15th 50 Backstroke and 200 Backstroke.
Swimmers who qualified for their age group combined finals were Josh Gilbert, Claudia Taylor, Zarhn Collins and Brittany Taylor.
The Taranaki relay teams were on fire, with the boys team of Zarhn Collins, Chris Johnson, Josh Gilbert and New Plymouth members Troy Ryan and Zac Reid gaining 3 Bronze medals in the 4x100 Freestyle, 4x200 Freestyle and 4x100 Medley relays. The girls chosen to represent Taranaki in the 3 relays from Stratford were Bailee Drummond, Claudia Taylor and Zoe Williamson, with the relay teams breaking Taranaki records and all in the top 8 in NZ as well it is great to be selected for these when Taranaki has such a high standard of swimmers. Congratulations to everyone involved in this meet, and we look forward to the Stratford pool opening so training can be resumed. We were very grateful to receive funding from the NZ Racing Board to support these swimmers at New Zealand's highest level.