World champion heads line-up for national age group swimming

World junior champion Gabrielle Fa’amausili heads a talented line-up when New Zealand’s age group swimmers compete at the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre next week.

The New Zealand Age Group Championships is one of the country’s largest swim meets with this year’s numbers growing again with 664 swimmers set to compete compared to last year’s 611.

Fa’amausili, the 50m backstroke world champion, will be competing along with her 2013 world junior team mates Bobbi Gichard, Michael Mincham and Bradlee Ashby.

The quartet hold multiple national age group records between them. They were all in impressive form at the New Zealand Opens earlier this month where Fa’amausili and Gichard went under the qualifying time for the Pan Pacific Championships in the 100m backstroke.

This year’s event will double as the qualifying event for the Youth Olympic Games and Junior Pan Pacific Championships, both in August this year.

Fa’amausili, Gichard and Mincham will have their sights set on qualifying for both of these events while Ashby, too old to qualify for the Youth Olympic Games, will be looking to qualify for the Junior Pan Pacific team.

The competition runs from Tuesday 29 April to Saturday 3 May. Heats sessions are from 9am daily with the finals each day from 6pm.

NZ Age Groups