18-medal haul for swim team

The Subway Wanganui Swim Team (from left) Jacob Smith, Shannon Schimanski, Sophie Couper, Sarya Lower, Elena Forlong (orange T-shirt), Jazim Phillips, Jaime Schimanski and Stefan Hannan returned home triumphantly from Wellington after the long weekend. Absent: Laura O'Keeffe and Samantha Miller. Photo/Bevan Conley

The Subway Wanganui Swim Team celebrated Anniversary Weekend with an 18-medal haul at the Wellington Long Course Championships.

The team of 10 swimmers travelled to the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre on Friday and raced over seven sessions until Monday evening against the best age group swimmers in the lower North Island. The haul included six gold, four silver and eight bronze.

Fifteen-year-old Laura O'Keeffe set the tone for the meet in the first event with an outstanding swim in the 800-metre freestyle, clocking a New Zealand Open Championships qualifying time of 9m 32.90s and gaining a silver medal in the process.

It wasn't long before 13-year-old Shannon Schimanski went one better in the 200m breaststroke winning the first of her three gold medals. And to top off an outstanding night, Jacob Smith (15) matched Schimanski's feat with his own gold in the 15-year-old boys' 200m breaststroke.

The medals continued to come for Subway Wanganui with O'Keeffe claiming bronze in the 400m individual medley in the Saturday morning session.

Schimanski claimed bronze in the 50m backstroke during Saturday evening's session before winning the 100m breaststroke in 1m 18.87s.

O'Keeffe continued her fine form with bronze in the 50m backstroke and Smith picked up his second gold medal in the 100m breaststroke.

To top the evening off, the youngest swimmer in the Wanganui team, 12-year-old Sarya Lower, showed that she is a top prospect by sprinting to a silver medal in the 50m freestyle.

On Sunday morning O'Keeffe took bronze in the 200m freestyle with another open qualifying time of 2m 10.26s. That evening Sophie Couper gained her silver medal in the 16-year-old 100m backstroke, and O'Keeffe kept adding to her impressive medal haul with bronze in the same event for 15-year-olds. In the last event of the evening, 14-year-old Elena Forlong got in on the action with her bronze in the 200m butterfly.

As the team entered the last day of a busy meet, there were still more medals to come.

O'Keeffe capped off her hugely successful competition with her sixth medal claiming her fourth bronze, this time in the 400m freestyle, and young Lower picked up a bronze in the 100m butterfly .

Couper won her first gold in the 16-year-old 200m backstroke and Jacob Smith claimed bronze in the 50m breaststroke.

Schimanski signed off the competition by completing the treble in the girls' breaststroke events with yet another gold in the 50m race in a very slick time of 35.16s. Her swim was so impressive that only two other female swimmers, aged 19 and 20, could beat the 13-year-old's time.

Interim coach David Rudolph said overall the Subway Wanganui team once again performed exceptionally well with all 10 swimmers coming home with finalists' ribbons and six swimmers medalling.

"Solid performance from Stefan Hannan, Jaime Schimanski, Samantha Miller and Jazim Phillips resulted in several personal bests and finals over the weekend. Overall it was a very successful weekend for all the swimmers," Rudolph said.

The team now gets back into training before some of the members travel to the Manawatu Long Course Champs in Palmerston North in the first weekend of February.