Podium placings all round for Whanganui at the Wellington Regional Short Course Champs
After months of disrupted training and cancelled swim meets due to the Covid-19 pandemic, seven of Whanganui's most promising swimmers travelled to Wellington to contest the Wellington Regional Short Course Championships last weekend.
While it was probably the smallest team the Toyota Whanganui Swim Team has sent in many years, the results achieved by all seven were unprecedented with everyone in the team featuring on the podium.
The team secured an incredible 9th placing overall against clubs with more than 10 times the number of athletes competing.
Covid restrictions meant that the racing was done in age groups with the 12-year-olds competing on Friday evening, the 13-year-olds on Saturday morning, the 14-year-olds on Saturday afternoon, the 15-year-olds on Sunday morning and the 16 and overs on Sunday evening.
What this meant was very short turnarounds between races, giving the swimmers little time to regroup and recover, no matter how gruelling their previous race had been.
Friday night and the 12-year-age group featured Whanganui's biggest contingent with Aria Bannister, Sophie Young-Wilson and Lizzie Adrole taking to the pool in search of personal bests and medals. Adrole got the meet off to a flying start in the 50-metre breaststroke, swimming a PB and claiming a well-deserved bronze medal in the process.
Next up was one of Whanganui's stars of this meet with Bannister racing the 200m Individual Medley. Swimming an outstanding race and setting a PB, Bannister was more than 12 seconds ahead of the silver medallist to claim the first of her three gold medals.
Not to be outdone, Young-Wilson picked up Whanganui's third medal in the 50m backstroke with Adrole 6th in the same race.
It was a very short turnaround for Adrole, literally having to go straight back to marshalling for the 200m breaststroke where she still managed a creditable 4th.
The 100m freestyle produced the swim of the session for Bannister, smashing 5s off her PB on the way to another gold. Young-Wilson also raced that event, picking up 8th place.
The 50m freestyle produced another top 10 ribbon for Young-Wilson with her 6th placing before Bannister swam another 5 second PB in the 200m freestyle for a silver.
By now, the short turnarounds were taking their toll on the swimmers, but Adrole pulled out another brilliant PB to place 4th in the 100m breaststroke. Bannister picked up the last of her gold medals in the 100m backstroke with a PB and Young-Wilson again swam very well to secure 4th place and finish off an outstanding session for the team.
Day 2 saw the 13-year-olds swimming and what a day it was going to turn out to be for Whanganui's Regan Hanna. Lining up in the 200m IM as the top seed carried some pressure, but Hanna swam a brilliant race to win comfortably with a 7s PB and a NZ Short Course Champs qualifying time under his belt.
**He followed that up with another massive 5s PB in the 100m freestyle, smashing the minute barrier with a time of 58.01s, qualifying for another event at NZ short course and winning his second gold medal in two outings. **
The 200m freestyle produced another PB and another gold for Hanna, before picking up his third NZ short course qualification time and a silver medal in the 100m backstroke with another 5s personal best.
With no 14-year-olds attending from the Whanganui team, coach Richard Gheel got an afternoon away from the pool before Whanganui's last three swimmers took to the pool on Sunday.
Marley Orr and Lucy Somerville were Whanganui's representatives in the 15-year-old group, and they continued Whanganui's medal run with Somerville picking up silvers in the 50m and 200m backstroke, a bronze in the 100m backstroke and 6th in the 50m freestyle.
Despite being hit from behind in a nose-to-tail car crash on the way down to Wellington and battling with stiffness in his neck, Orr also featured in the medals with a bronze in the 100m breaststroke.
He secured 5th placings in the 50m butterfly and the 50m breaststroke, and a 7th placing and PB in the 100m freestyle, also going under the 1 minute mark for the first time.
The last session featured Whanganui's most successful swimmer in recent times, Ethan Bryers (16), who is normally known as a long distance specialist. Bryers came into the meet under a cloud as an illness has hampered his training significantly since coming out of lockdown.
**In an unusual meet for him, he raced three 50m events (breaststroke, freestyle and butterfly) and the 100m freestyle. Incredibly he managed to post personal bests in three of these races with a silver in the 50m breaststroke, a bronze in the 100m freestyle in a very slick time of 55.11s and a 5th placing in the 50m freestyle. **
He then finished the meet as Adrole had started it, on the podium with a silver in the 50m butterfly, just 0.11s behind the race winner.
Coach Gheel was very satisfied with what turned out to be an excellent weekend of racing. He was particularly pleased with the swims of Bannister and Hanna, with the latter's NZ short course qualifying times being the icing on the cake.
The whole club will now turn their focus to the Whanganui Swim Club Championships this weekend with Orr and Hanna in final preparation for the NZ short course champs in Hamilton in a couple of weeks.
Staff Reporter
Whanganui Chronicle 24/9/20
