Boyle earns reward for year of swimming brilliance

Outstanding performances over the past 12 months by Auckland swimmer Lauren Boyle has been reflected at the State Insurance Swimming New Zealand Awards tonight.

Boyle earned four major awards including the overall Swimmer of the Year at a glittering function in Auckland tonight that followed a successful national championship, which doubled as the official trial for the XX Commonwealth Games.

The 26 year old won three medals at the 2013 world championships in Barcelona and by year’s end was ranked third in the world over 800m freestyle and sixth over 400m long course, and second in the world over both distances short course.

Accordingly the United club swimmer was awarded the international long course swimmer of the year, the national swimmer of the year and the Billie Fitzsimmons Cup for individual international performance of the year as well as the overall Swimming of the Year.

Wellington Paralympic star Mary Fisher was awarded the Swimmer of the Year with a Disability following a brilliant 2013 season winning five gold medals and one silver at the IPC World Championships in Montreal.

Looking to the future junior world champion Gabrielle Fa’auausili and Wellington’s Emma Robinson shared the award for emerging swimmer of the year, while Cara Baker is the open water swimmer of the year.

North Shore was the top performance club while Taranaki featured with two awards – Okato was awarded the community club of the year and Stratford’s Clive Wheeler the club coach of the year.

Learn to swim was recognised with Christchurch City Council awarded the Quality Swim School of the Year and Makara Model School in Wellington the State Kiwi Swim Safe school of the year.

Those out of the pool were acknowledged with Christchurch’s Lesley Huckins the technical official of the year and Wellington’s Mark Berge awarded volunteer of the year for his work with the regional performance centre.

The full list of awards for 2013 is:

Emerging Swimmer: Emma Robinson (Capital, Wellington) and Gabrielle Fa’amausili (Roskill, Auckland).

International long course swimmer: Lauren Boyle (United, Auckland).

National swimmer: Lauren Boyle.

Open water swimmer: Cara Baker.

Swimmer with a disability: Mary Fisher (Capital, Wellington)

Relay team: Men 4x100m medley (Gareth Kean, Glenn Snyders, Shaun Burnett, Matthew Stanley

Performance club: North Shore

Community club:Okato (Taranaki)

Volunteer: Mark Berge (Wellington)

Technical official: Lesley Huckins (Canterbury)

Quality swim school: Christchurch City Council (Swimsmart/Swinsafe)

State Kiwi Swim Safe School: Makara Model School (Wellington)

NZ Masters Swimmer: Richard Lockhart

People’s choice: Gabrielle Fa’amausili

Club coach: Clive Wheeler (Stratford, Taranaki)

Performance coach: David Lyles (SNZ, Auckland)

Best individual international performance (Billie Fitzsimmons Club): Lauren Boyle

Swimming New Zealand Swimmer of the Year: Lauren Boyle.