More than 180 swimmers from across New Zealand and abroad — competitors from Australia, Tahiti and the Netherlands have travelled — will be gunning for international qualification times and national titles in Hawke’s Bay starting today.
While Fairweather has already qualified for the Olympics off the back of her full complement of medals at the world championships earlier this year, it will be another chance for her to fine-tune things from her training ahead of Paris.
The Neptune swimmer is in for a busy few days in Hawke’s Bay, as she competes in the women’s 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle.
She will be in good company as Neptune team-mates Caitlin Deans, Ruby Heath, and Emilia Finer will line up in most of the same events.
Esme Paterson will be looking to strike some good form at the nationals before she heads off to represent New Zealand at the Oceania championships in the Gold Coast later this month. She will compete in the women’s 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly.
Luan Grobbelaar, who was due to compete alongside Paterson at the Oceania championships, has been ruled out of the national and Oceania events due to injury.
Kane Follows, Poppy Henderson, Zac Reid and Tom Gold round out the Neptune club swimmers.
Expect Kale Twist and Meg McLaughlan (Kiwi) to be in the mix as well.
Caleb Ludlow and Liam Rees represent Alexandra, and Liam McGowan will fly the flag for Oamaru.
World champion 400m IM swimmer Lewis Clareburt will be hunting for Olympic qualification in the 200m butterfly and 200m medley.
Another world champion, three-time Paralympic gold medallist Cameron Leslie, will be looking to qualify for his fourth Paralympics in the men’s 50m freestyle multi-class and men’s 100m freestyle multi-class.
The 2023 Swimming New Zealand awards will also be announced throughout the week.
Fairweather is a finalist for both domestic and international swimmer of the year, while her coach, Lars Humer, is a finalist for both domestic and international coach of the year.
