Medal haul for Whanganui swimmers

Members of the successful Whanganui Swimming Club team at the Manawatu Winter Champs.

A phenomenal record-breaking weekend happened at the Manawatu Winter Championships, held from July 14-16 at the Freyberg Pool in Palmerston North. There were 57 PBs, 27 medals, seven new Whanganui age group records, and a provisional Manawatu record.

A team of 17 had been representing the Whanganui Swimming Club, and the team members produced some fantastic racing.

The weekend got off to a great start on Friday, with the long-distance events. Congratulations to Paige Conley who earned herself gold in the 800m Freestyle (Open) in a new Whanganui short course (SC) record in the 13 years age group of 9:40.35, taking 17 seconds off Laura O’Keeffe’s previous record from 2011.

All events over the course of the weekend were swum as Open with the exception of the 100m events for which medals were awarded in banded age groups. Congratulations go to other Whanganui swimmers who also picked up medals in the Open events:

Agatha Doggett - in both the 400m IM and 200m Butterfly, and Rylee Earles in the 400m IM.

Congratulations to the newest competitive swimmers who learned a lot and can all be very proud of the way they swam: Harriet Aplin, Margot Franklin-Browne, Sophie Bennetts, Sophie Nevard, and Zion Tiraha.

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Some other highlights included:

■ An all-Whanganui podium finish in the girls’ 11-12 years 100m Backstroke: Rylee Earles (1), Ziva Bunker (2), and Rachel Pui (3)

■ Elle, Lincoln, and Rachel - 6 PBs each

Huge congratulations to Arahi Doggett who also achieved 6 PBs, each one a new Whanganui SC record in the 9 years age group: - in the 50m Backstroke, his time of 38.87 seconds saw him break Dane Whale’s previous Whanganui record of 40.74 seconds which had stood since 2001.

Arahi’s time of 1:24.04 in the 100m Backstroke was a 2.8 second PB off his own Whanganui record and also a provisional Manawatu SC record (9 years) H

He eclipsed his own 100m IM and 100m Freestyle records, both set at the Wellington Short Course Champs just 3 weeks ago, by 3.5 seconds and 2.8 seconds respectively and also squeezed another 0.02 of a second off both his own 50m Butterfly and 50m Freestyle records.

The Manawatu Winter’s team comprised mainly junior swimmers this year because the focus for many of our senior swimmers is on the NZ Secondary School Swimming Champs which start this Thursday . . . go Whanganui.