Kiwi swimmers head across ditch for Aussie competition

Youth Olympic and Junior Pan Pacific medallists are among the list of Kiwi swimmers heading across the ditch to compete in the Queensland Championships and Victorian Age Group Championships starting this weekend.

Nearly 70 swimmers from New Zealand will be competing across the two championships being hosted in Brisbane and Melbourne respectively.

Included in the line-up for the Queensland Championships are Youth Olympic bronze medallists Gabrielle Fa’amausili (Roskill) and Bobbi Gichard (Greendale) and Junior Pan Pacific bronze medallist Bradlee Ashby (Fairfield).

They will also be joined by Commonwealth Games swimmers Samantha Lee (Capital), Samantha Lucie-Smith (Capital), Nikita Howarth (Te Awamutu) and Sophie Pascoe (QEII, Canterbury).

Swimmers heading to the Victorian Age Group Championships hail from Napier Aquahawks, Te Awamutu, Greerton, St Peters, Otumoetai, Parnell, Enterprise, Howick Pakuranga, Mt Maunganui, QEII, Central Hawkes Bay, Greendale, Stratford, Thames, United and Rotorua.

Seven open water swimmers will also be competing across the Tasman before the year end at the New South Wales Open Water Championships from 20 to 21 December.

Kiwi’s in action will be Kane Radford (Rotorua), Charlotte Webby (Aquabladz New Plymouth), Jordan Gadsby (Aquabladz), Philip Ryan (Waterhole), Troy Balvert (St Peter’s), Penelope Hayes (St Peter’s) and Stefannie Gillespie (Zenith).

The Queensland Championships run from the 13^th to the 19^th of December. Further information on the event and results can be found here.

The Victorian Age Group Championships take place from the 13^th to the 18^th of December. More details and results can be found here.