World Junior backstroke champion and former record holder Gabrielle Fa’amausili heads a 10-member New Zealand team to contest the Junior Pan Pacific championships in Maui, Hawaii in August.
Backstroker Bobbi Gichard, 16, who competed at last year’s World champs, is also in the team.
Fa’amausili won all six of her events at the National Age grade championships last week in Wellington. She was just 0.03 off her New Zealand 16 years age group record in the 50m freestyle, clocking 25.65s, but set a NAG record in the 100m backstroke with 1:00.76.
She also clocked 2:15.56 to take three seconds off her personal best in the 200m backstroke. All three were Panpac times.
“That was awesome; it feels so unusual to actually do well in that (200) event,” Fa’amausili said.
“I’m super happy with that – I’ve been working towards swimming smarter and swimming longer distances to improve my 100m so I’m really happy with that.”
Mya Rasmussen, 15, also qualified in the 400m IM, in 4:50.42. She has gone faster, winning the event at last month’s Australian Age group champs in a NAG time of 4:46.87, the fastest time in the pool, and, at the time, the 47th fastest time this year.
“I’m feeling really happy after Australia so was just aiming to do those times again here or better them,” Rasmussen said.
“I’ve wanted to do this for a while so to do it is really exciting and a big relief.”
Zac Reid reached the qualifying standard in the 1500m by just 0.6 sec, after a blistering last leg to clock 15:58.28, He also qualified for the 400m freestyle in the heats, clocking 4:01.58, but was edged out by Lewis Clareburt, also 16, who clocked 4:01.89 – an eight second personal best – to qualify for Maui.
“I’m pretty knackered, it was a hard swim this morning and then Lewis really took it tonight,” Reid said. “I just couldn’t hold on I was a bit dead, but I’m real happy about this morning and real stoked to get the time.”
Others to qualify included Annabelle Paterson, 17, who bettered the qualifying standard in the 200m backstroke event twice. Hayley McIntosh qualified in the 400m freestyle, and the 800m freestyle in 8:56.72, after a silver at the Australian Age grades. Caitlin Deans, 16, came within a fingernail, clocking 9:00.48. The qualifying time is 9:00.41.
Chelsey Edwards, 14, also came within a whisker in the 100m freestyle, with 57.61, just outside a NAG record and 0.30s short of the Panpacs time. However she took out four freestyle NAG titles – 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m – for the third successive year.
The team is: Kelsi Boocock 100m backstroke; Lewis Clareburt 400m freestyle; Hayley McIntosh 400m freestyle, 800 freestyle; Gabrielle Fa’amausili 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke, 100m freestyle, 50m freestyle; Bobbi Gichard 200m backstroke; Yeonsu Lee 200m freestyle; Eliot Lundon-Moore 200m breaststroke; Mya Rasmussen 400m individual medley; Annabelle Paterson 200m backstroke; Zac Reid 400m freestyle, 1500m freestyle.
Courtesy Swimming New Zealand.
