Swim stars tough it out in Navy drills

Some of the members of New Zealand’s international swimming team, the Aquablacks, were put through their paces yesterday morning in team building activities at the Royal New Zealand Naval base in Devonport, Auckland.

The objectives of the activities were to strengthen the team through physical and mental challenges, put members of the group outside their comfort zone and promote individual growth and team cohesion.

The morning started off at 7am with a run in the mud where the swimmers were put through a tough physical challenge, as slowing down meant sinking further in.

They then had the opportunity to get into a more familiar environment, the water, by jumping off a wharf into the sea and from there had to climb up ropes.

Finally it was on to what was described by the swimmers as the task of carrying awkward objects such as logs and tyres through the local area. During this exercise they also had trust and problem solving activities to complete.

While it was a demanding morning of heavy lifting and running around the general consensus was that the team enjoyed themselves with Samantha Lucie-Smith summing up that it was “challenging but fun”.

The activity was part of an orientation camp being held over two days preparing for the Commonwealth Games, Oceania Championships and Pan Pacific Championships.

Swimmers taking part in the camp were:
Lauren Boyle
Dylan Dunlop-Barrett
Natasha Hind
Ewan Jackson
Steven Kent
Samantha Lee
Samantha Lucie-Smith
Laura Quilter
Kane Radford
Emma Robinson
Matthew Stanley
Charlotte Webby