Australian Swim Meets Lure Kiwis Across the Ditch

The end of the year is quickly approaching with a large number of Kiwi swimmers hopping across the ditch to compete in the last swimming competitions of the year. 128 New Zealander’s will compete at the New South Wales Open Water Championships, the Victorian Age Group Championships, and the Queensland State Championships over the weekend.

World Championship representatives Kane Radford and Phillip Ryan will lead a strong Kiwi open water contingent of six swimmers in their bid to qualify for the New Zealand team to attend the 2014 Oceania Championships. The event will take place at the Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith Lakes, today and tomorrow. 

75 age group swimmers from around the country have flown to Melbourne to race at the Victorian Age Championships which take place from 14-19 December at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. There are 436 individual entries from the New Zealand swimmers with 17 year old national open record holder Natasha Lloyd the top challenger in the 100m and 200m breaststroke.

The Queensland State Championships also begin this weekend running from 14-20 December in Brisbane. A large number of State AquaBlacks are competing in this event including world championship medallists Lauren Boyle and Matthew Stanley. Other 2013 world championship representatives competing are Shaun Burnett, Nathan Capp, Mitchell Donaldson, Gareth Kean, Samantha Lee, Samantha Lucie-Smith, and Emma Robinson. 14 year old World Junior Champion Gabrielle Fa’amausili is also competing in the backstroke and freestyle events.  

Further information and results for these competitions can be found below:

NSW Open Water Championships - http://nsw.swimming.org.au/
Queensland State Championships - http://qld.swimming.org.au/
Victorian Age Group Championships - http://vic.swimming.org.au/