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St Clair Surf Life Saving Club swimmers picked up five titles at the Surf Life Saving New Zealand pool championships in Wellington over the weekend.
Surf life-saving in the pool does not include waves but the races involve events to test lifesavers' skills.
Events involve competitors towing manikins with rescue tubes, swimming under gates and using large fibreglass kick fins to propel them through the water.
All the events are designed to simulate every-day scenarios lifeguards face.
St Clair swimmers won five gold, seven silver and three bronze medals.
Some of the St Clair swimmers had just spent the week in Wellington at the national short-course championships at the same venue.
Andrew Trembath and Carina Doyle carried their medal winning form from the short-course championships to the life-saving event.
Trembath won gold in the under-16 200m swim with obstacles and the under-16 100m rescue medley, also breaking the New Zealand records for both events.
Doyle won the under-19 200m swim with obstacles and teamed up with clubmates Jessie and Lulu Schneiders and Jordy Fogarty to win gold in the under-19 4x50 medley relay and the 4x50 obstacle relay.
The St Clair open 6x50m mega relay team, made up of female and male swimmers from across the three age-groups, finished 0.3sec behind New Plymouth Old Boys' to gain silver.
The open men won silvers in the 4x50m medley and obstacle relays.
Under-19 women Jessie Schneiders and Olivia Stevens claimed silver in the quickfire line throw event.
Doyle won three individual silvers to go with her three gold medals and she also won an individual bronze medal.
Trembath continued his good form by claiming two individual bronze medals.
The haul could have been much higher had Olympian Andrew McMillan been able to compete. Injury curtailed a rare chance for him to represent his club. McMillan has been a member of the Dunedin club since he was introduced to surf life-saving while at Otago Boys' High School but has spent most of the years since in either Auckland or Australia, pursuing pool swimming opportunities. McMillan will represent New Zealand at the world championships in Australia next month.
The St Clair team finished 11th overall. Lyall Bay, Wellington, was the top club, New Plymouth Old Boys' was second and Mount Maunganui third.