Growing numbers for South Island Town and Country Meet

This year’s South Island Town and Country Competition was held recently at Blenheim’s Stadium 2000 and attracted a growing number of participants.

The swim meet brought 250 swimmers from all over the South Island, up from 201 in Invercargill last year.

The meet provides an opportunity for swimmers who have not qualified for higher level national meets to compete against swimmers from other South Island clubs.

Phil McMath, who chaired the local organising committee, noted the great support they have had for the competition as well as the high percentage of personal best times achieved by swimmers from all clubs.

“The swimmers obviously enjoyed the fast water, good competition and great atmosphere," McMath said.

“It was also great to have touchpads on a long term loan from Canterbury West Coast. We really appreciate that, and it was wonderful to have 130 swimmers here from Canterbury.

“We had lots of comments from officials and parents about how much they enjoyed the weekend and are looking forward to coming back. We had great support from our sponsors and a great team from across the region that worked hard to make this a fantastic event.”

Blenheim Swimming Club successfully defended the top club trophy they won last year with Sophie Woodhouse (13) and Anton Horton (16) leading the way for them.

Otago won the trophy for the region with the most points per swimmer, while Kobi Stephens (13) and Tom Heather (12) helped Wanaka claim the trophy for most points by a club with six or fewer swimmers.

Bradley Limmer (19) of Waimea Swimming Club was the top individual swimmer, winning six events in the 15 & over age group and setting five meet records. He added two seconds and one third place and helped Waimea come within a whisker of taking the top club trophy from Blenheim, missing out by just 2.5 points.

Tayla Graham (16) also made a sizeable contribution to Waimea’s points tally with four firsts, one second and three third placings, and swam in the two winning relay teams with Limmer and Horton.

CAPTION: Sophie Woodhouse in action during the 2015 South Island Town and Country Competition.