Otago swimmers have capped off another successful nationals in style.
They brought home a raft of medals and broke several national and Otago records at the New Zealand short course championships in Hastings.
The highlights included the performance of Erika Fairweather who broke the national women’s 200m freestyle record, finishing in 1min 53.07sec to win gold. She also won gold and set an Otago record in the 100m freestyle in 53.91sec, and won gold in the 400m in 3min 59.79sec.
Caitlin Deans was close behind, finishing second in the 200m free (1 min 57.03sec) and 400m (4min 04.51sec).
She won her fifth consecutive 1500m short course freestyle title, finishing in 16min 02.08sec.
Ruby Heath won silver in the same event in 16min 41.56sec and won the 800m freestyle in 8min 42.58sec.
Zac Reid had a stunning series, winning two golds and a silver.
He won the men’s 800m freestyle in 7min 43.30sec, breaking Danyon Loader’s 1998 time to set an Otago record, and secured gold in the 400m freestyle in 3min 44.12sec. He claimed silver and set an Otago record in the 200m free in 1min 45.15sec.
Esme Patterson was outstanding in the butterfly, breaking several Otago records, and winning a gold and silver.
She won the 200m butterfly in 2min 11.97sec, silver in the 100m butterfly in 59.50sec for an Otago record and swam 27.62 in the 50m butterfly for an Otago record.
She teamed up with Nicole Lockie, Lucy McKinnon and Rae Kwan to set an Otago record in the 4x50m medley relay of 1min 56.00sec.
Kane Follows won the 200m backstroke in 1min 52.74sec to also set an Otago record .
Young Neo Salomonsson had a big week, winning gold in the men’s 14 years 200m butterfly in 2min 15.33sec.
He followed up with silver in the 50m butterfly in 26.52sec for an Otago age-group record, bronze — and an Otago age-group record — in the 50m backstroke in 27.55sec and bronze in the 100m butterfly in 1min 00.38sec.
Kale Twist set two Otago records, taking bronze in the 100m freestyle (49.09sec) and a record in the 50m freestyle (22.43sec).
Poppy Henderson set an Otago record in the women’s 18 years 50m butterfly short course in 28.16sec.
