Whanganui swim team return home from Taranaki junior competition dripping with medals

Whanganui swimmers Reeve Watson (closest) and Bridget Trott match each other in the 11-year-old girls breaststroke at the Taranaki Junior Championships at the weekend.

The Toyota Whanganui swim team junior members (12 and under) ventured north to Stratford over the weekend returning home with 63 medals.

The team claimed 24 individual gold medals, 22 silver and 14 bronze as well as claiming gold in both girls' relays and a silver and a bronze in the boys.

Cayden Earles (12) stole the show with a massive individual haul of 9 gold and a silver, as well as being part of both the winning relay teams. She swum several personal bests and will look to the national meets in the first half of 2018 with great anticipation.

Not far behind was 11-year-old Georgia Abraham with her individual haul of 6 gold and 3 silver as well as being in the relay teams. Cheyenne Nightingale (12) showed she is the current freestyle queen, winning the 100m, 200m and 400m golds to go with 4 silver and 5 bronze, and the relay wins.

Jack Robertson (12) was the best performed boy with 6 individual gold and 2 individual silver to go with the relay medals.

In the 10-year-old girls' category Aria Bannister won 3 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze.

Toyota Whanganui's other gold medal winners were Lucy Somerville (individual in the 100m backstroke and in the two relays) and Regan Carver in the 10-year-old 200m freestyle and 50m butterfly. Somerville also picked up 2 bronze and carver 2 silver and a bronze.

The medals didn't stop there with Eli Abraham (9) picking up 4 silver medals, Henry Carver 3 silver and a bronze, Allan Thongskul (11) a silver and 2 bronze as well as the relay medals, Sophie Bell (11) a silver, Liam Cromar (11) an individual bronze and the relays, and Regan Hanna (11) the two relay medals.

The other swimmers, Thomas Gowan (11), Caralie Hanna (only 8 but swimming in the 9 and under category), Katie Ramage (12), Bridget Trott (11) and Sophie Trott (10) and Reeve Watson (11) all swam personal bests and gained top 10 finishes.

The next competition for the Toyota Whanganui team is a trip to Waikato for the senior swimmers where they will be racing the long course (50 metre pool) for the first time since April.