‘Old dog’ gets finish right to win national title

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

Dunedin Olympian Kane Follows — who is far from ancient at 28 — says otherwise, after he stormed home to collect another title at the national swimming championships in Auckland at the weekend.

Follows flew through the back half of the men’s 100m backstroke final to produce a brilliant finish and touch the wall in 55.42sec.

As the Neptune swimmer looked up at his time, he offered a little fist-pump, having pipped 19-year-old Jasper Cornish (Coast), who finished in 55.43sec.

Follows, who collected silver in the 50m and 200m backstroke earlier at the competition, was thrilled to secure top of the podium.

‘‘I let the young boys get me in the 50 and the 200, so I thought it was time to show them, you know, an old dog’s still got some tricks up his sleeve,’’ Follows told commentators after the race.

Follows, who has been a ‘‘fulltime teacher, part-time swimmer’’ of late and is back in the classroom at John McGlashan College today, has worked hard on his finish and was pleased to see it come to fruition.

‘‘I’m probably known for having a bad finish, so it’s been a focus for the past couple of years.

‘‘Good to get it done in the end. Stoked with it.’’

Otago produced a strong final few days at the national event.

Dunedin Olympian Caitlin Deans qualified for the Pan Pacific Championships — and will be put forward for consideration for the Commonwealth Games relay team — and Neo Salomonsson qualified for the Junior Pan Pacific Championships.

Deans (Neptune), who earlier set an Otago record in the 1500m in 16min 11.42sec, rounded out her championships with another medal, winning bronze in the 800m freestyle in 8min 35.61sec.

Former Dunedin swimmer Erika Fairweather won the event in 8min 26.12sec, Emilia Finer (Neptune) was fifth in 9min 04.03sec and Ruby Heath (Kiwi) was sixth in 9min 05.47sec.

Salomonsson (Kiwi) won gold in the men’s 17-18 years 50m butterfly and snapped his Otago age-group record in 24.62sec.

He also won bronze in the men’s 17-18 years 200m butterfly in 2min 06.53sec and won bronze in the opens as well, after being fourth overall but third-placed Harvey Larke was from Australia.

Fellow Kiwi swimmer Alfie Weatherston Harvey won gold in the 17-18 years 800m freestyle in 8min 16.70sec — a 4.24sec personal best — and won bronze in the 17-18 years 100m backstroke in 58.45sec.

Weatherston Harvey was earlier named the national emerging swimmer of the year for the mako zone at the championships.

Liam Rees came sixth in the men’s 200m breaststroke in 2min 23.06sec and joined Kiwi team-mates Salomonsson, Weatherston Harvey and William McFarlane to be the seventh New Zealand team, and eighth overall, in the 4x100m medley relay in 3min 57.89sec.

Abigail Samuels (Kiwi) won silver in the 17-18years 50m freestyle in 26.60sec, and Greer Holland (Zenith) won bronze in the 50m breaststroke in 45.75sec and was fourth overall in the 50m freestyle in 31.67sec.

Finer was also eighth in the 400m IM in 5min 13.26sec.

Otago swimmers will now prepare for the annual Neptune King’s Birthday weekend event at Moana Pool.