Whanganui junior swim team plunders the prize pool at the NZ Junior Festival in Wellington

The 15-strong Toyota Whanganui Swim team finished fourth behind the much larger powerhouse metro clubs at the New Zealand Junior Festival (All Stars) Zonal meet in Wellington.

The Toyota Whanganui Swim team plundered medals, club records and personal bests at the New Zealand Junior Festival (All Stars) Zonal meet in Wellington last week.

In all a total of six gold, nine silver and 14 individual bronze medals with bronzes also being picked up in both the freestyle and medley relays, placed Whanganui fourth overall on points behind Wellington powerhouse clubs Swimzone from the Hutt, Porirua and Capital Swim Club from Wellington.

Whanganui achieved this with just 15 swimmers while the larger Wellington clubs had far more competitors with Swimzone having over 45 swimmers racing.

The meet started well on Friday for Whanganui with Nikki Forlong and Jack Robertson, both 12, picking up bronze in the 400m freestyle, which was the first event.

Ironically, both swimmers were hindered losing their goggles during the race and virtually having to complete the race blind, however, the scene had been set for the rest of the meet.

Then it was the turn of 10-year-old Aria Bannister to win the first of the six golds when winning the 50 metre breaststroke. She started as the second seed but a massive personal best saw her win the race by almost a full second from a fast-finishing Nelson swimmer.

Cayden Earles also showed her prowess in the 50m breaststroke with her first of five silver medals in the 12-year-old girls' event in a National Age Group championships qualifying time of 36.63 seconds.

The next Whanganui medals came in a clean sweep of the 12-year-old girls' 200m backstroke with Georgia Abraham just pipping Earles for the gold and Forlong snapping at their heals for her second bronze. There was less than 1.5 seconds between first and third.

The medals did not stop with the 4x50m mixed club relay team of Earles, Abraham, Robertson and 11-year-old Regan Hanna, swimming an outstanding race to claim yet another bronze.

Saturday was another busy day for the squad with all 15 swimmers in action.
Once again the day got off to a flying start with Earles smashing her personal best by over 17 seconds in the 400m individual medley (IM) to win gold in a Whanganui record and national age group champs qualifying time of 5.41.60. In the same race Forlong took almost 27 seconds off her PB to claim her third bronze of the meet.

Bannister was back in business with bronze in the ten-year-old 50m freestyle and then backed up a short time later to take 11.5 seconds off her 200m breaststroke personal best (PB) and win another gold.

Earles then claimed another silver in the 200m breaststroke in another national age group qualifying and Whanganui record time.

Bannister's third medal of the session came in the 50m backstroke with a bronze, and Earles followed suit with a silver in her age group.

The afternoon session featured Whanganui swimmers contesting another 31 events.
Bannister again underlined her potential with a bronze in the 200m freestyle and a silver in the 100m individual medley.

Then it was Abraham's turn to qualify for the National Age Group championships winning the 100m backstroke in a time of 1.12.31. In the same race Earles claimed her second bronze of the meet with another big personal best time.

The final session of the meet was Sunday morning and just like every other session the Toyota Whanganui Swim Team was on the podium very early with Bannister gaining another silver, this time in the 200m IM. She also finished with silver in the 100m breaststroke.

Earles also claimed silver in the 12-year-old 200m IM race then picked up another gold in the 100m breaststroke in another qualifying time of 1.21.59.

The final race of the meet was the mixed 4x50m medley where Earles, Abraham, Robertson and Henry Carver swam another excellent race to finish third and pick up the last of the 31 medals achieved.

The Junior Carnival was a huge success for all of the Toyota Whanganui Swim team with 13 of the 15 swimmers picking up top 10 finishes and every one of the swimmers swimming personal best times on multiple occasions.

The next meet for the Whanganui team is the Manawatu Championships, before the older members of the team travel to Rotorua for the National Division 2 competition and the NZ Age Group Champs in Auckland.