After winning gold in the dolphin combo section at last year’s event, the Aquagold Artistic Swimming Club team will face a tougher test as they compete at the Artistic Swimming NZ South Island Championships on Saturday.
Aquagold Artistic Swimming Club president Phyll Esplin said the four members had moved from the dolphin tier to the aquanauts division.
Pitting themselves against peers and older competitors will serve as an essential test for the young athletes.
"You have to give them a challenge," Esplin said.
The team, comprised of Mila Bareiter, 13, Emma Horan, 13, Sasha Luke-Tychinskaya, 15, and Catalina Costa Barnett, 15, have been working together for about 18 months.
The girls were not just teammates; they were friends, she said.
"That is really a huge positive.
"Once you have got a team that are working well together ... they are progressing together."
Coach Pauline Dusseau said the group had been pushing hard in the final week before the competition.
"Last week they must have swum about 12 hours," Dusseau said.
The young girls will perform an aqua combo to music.
"The theme is electro swing, so retro music ... it is quite cool."
The focus for the athletes moving up to the aquanaut level is working to maintain good control in the water.
"It is very technical. We have got the routines but we also have technical elements where they are going to go on their own in front of a jury of four people and they have to demonstrate certain skills and capabilities by doing just a chain of movements."
Sasha Luke-Tychinskaya will perform the solo routine alongside her group commitments.
Sasha said she utilised her experience in gymnastics as well as contortion with Brophy Aerials to help control her body in the water.
Esplin said no matter where the girls placed in Christchurch, the club planned to send them to the national championships in Hamilton at the end of September.
"We will send them to nationals, whatever, because it is experience.
"Because, you know, if they don’t get first and they get last, you’ve got something to work on, haven’t you?"
The club was very fortunate to have two excellent coaches in Onevai Pita and Pauline Dusseau, Esplin said.
"Pauline has swum for France for seven, eight, nine years and Onevai swam for New Zealand for a year, so we are very lucky, the girls are very lucky because they have got two experienced swimmers coaching.
"Their coaching methods are getting better and better."
