Howick Pakuranga makes strong start

Howick Pakuranga made a strong start to the defence of their title as top club at the New Zealand Junior Swimming Championships in Auckland.

The club from Counties Manukau jumped to a 102 point lead after an excellent opening session at the Owen G Glenn National Aquatics Centre on Friday evening.

They have 295 points after the opening session to head North Shore on 193 and Coast on 158 in the competition for swimmers aged 12 years and under.

Individual honours were well shared in the female competition, with no swimmer achieving more than one win, and only four swimmers achieving two medals after the first session. They were Pukekohe’s Janaye Burns and three Auckland swimmers in Aimee Crosbie from Kings, Bianca van Zyl from Coast and Alice Waldow from United.

United’s Abhinav Makam had a perfect record of two wins from two starts in the male competition, with the 12 year old taking out the 50m breaststroke and 100m butterfly.

Ryan Oliver from Howick Pakuranga and Quintin Wong from Papatoetoe – both from the Counties Manukau region – had three medals each. Oliver, 12, was second in the 200m backstroke and third in the 400m freestyle and 100m butterfly in a busy first session, while Wong, 10, won the 200m backstrok3e and was second in the 50m breaststroke and 100m butterfly.

Competition continues on Saturday with two sessions from 8am and 4pm with a final session from 8am on Sunday.