Young swimmers head south in numbers for development meet

Three hundred swimmers from 86 clubs around the country will travel south to Dunedin this week for the New Zealand Division II competition starting on Wednesday at the famed Moana Pool.

The Division II meet is a long course (50m) competition for swimmers aged from 13 years.

“The competition attracts our next generation of young swimmers who we hope will use the meet to push on to the top age group and elite levels – and from there, some athletes may follow the pathways to International level,” said Swimming New Zealand’s Kent Stead.

“We are thrilled at the numbers heading to this meet. We have the same number of swimmers but more clubs competing this year in Dunedin than we had in Hamilton last year.

“It is a real testament to the development of young swimmers across the country and to the hard work by clubs big and small to raise the funds to enable their swimmers to compete.”

None more so than Northland with 22 swimmers from seven clubs – Bay of Islands, Bream Bay, Dargaville, Kamo, Manaia, Nga Papahu and Whangarei – making the long trek south.

Last year’s host region, Waikato has the biggest club representation with 38 swimmers from 12 clubs while Canterbury region has the most swimmers, with 49 participants from 11 clubs. Leading the way in Canterbury is the Wharenui Swim Club with 16 swimmers, while there are 13 flying south from Auckland’s TBSS Central City Swimming, the competitive arm of the swim school run by former Olympian Trent Bray.

Public are welcome to attend the competition which runs from Wednesday until Saturday, with heats from 9am and finals from 6pm each day.