Fa’amausili wins bronze medal at Junior Pan Pacs swimming

Auckland star Gabrielle Fa’amausili had to wait until the last session to secure the first medal for New Zealand at the Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Hawaii.

The 16 year old earned a bronze medal in the 50m freestyle in the final session of the four day meet. The Pan Pacs in Maui has drawn full strength teams from USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, China, New Zealand, the Pacific and other non-European nations, for swimmers between 13 to 18 years.

Fa’amausili (United club) was second fastest in the morning heats in 25.26 which set a new national age record and was only 0.24s off the New Zealand open record.

She was 0.1s slower in the final, finishing behind Americans Anya Marie Goeders and Marta Ciesla.

Taranaki’s Eliot Lundon-Moore (Aquabladz New Plymouth) set a personal best of 2:17.84 to qualify seventh fastest in the 200m breaststroke and lowered that again in the A Final to clock 2:17.44 to finish eighth.

Manawatu 16 year old Mya Rasmussen completed an excellent championship finishing 16^th in the B final of the 200m individual medley in 2:22.94.

In the timed finals of the men's 800m freestyle Taranaki's Zac Reid finished 13th overall with a personal best of 8:22.04.

The New Zealand quartet of Kelsi Boocock, Rasmussen, Yeonsu Lee and Fa’amausili finished fifth in the 4x100m medley relay in 4:18.41 to complete their Junior Pan Pacific Championship campaign.

CAPTION: Gabrielle Fa’amausili in action. (Credit: BW Media)