Winning two silver medals at this year’s world championships went a long way to helping Lauren Boyle win the 2015 New Zealand Swimmer of the Year honor at the Swimming New Zealand annual meeting. Bruce Cotterill was also elected as the federation’s new chairman of the board of directors.
Boyle made big breakthroughs at the world championships with her silver medals in the 800 and 1500 freestyles in Russia. Both swims put her second to the world records by American Katie Ledecky in both races, essentially making Boyle’s swims an unfortunate afterthought on the global scale. But Boyle swam lifetime bests in both events, setting herself up to win her first Olympic medal next year.
Swimming New Zealand reached back to 2014 to give its Relay Team of the Year award to Boyle, Samantha Lucie-Smith, Samantha Lee and Emma Robinson. The country’s open water swimmer of the year was Kane Radford, who was 30th in the 10K swim at the world championships.
In picking Cotterill as the new chairman, Swimming New Zealand has picked someone with a history in swimming on both sides of the sport. He had served as deputy chair for three years during Brent Layton’s tenure as chairman from 2012 to 2015.
The federation is looking to recover from a bit of a stumble earlier in the year when Luis Villanueva resigned as the high performance director in April, leaving the sport in a search for someone to help shape the country’s elite swimming goals. Villanueva’s departure came around the same time as David Lyles lost his job as national head coach as part of a restructuring move.
Other award recipients at Swimming New Zealand’s annual meeting:
New Zealand Swimming Trust Zonal Emerging Swimmers: Harlequins- Annabelle Paterson; AquaKnights – Bobbi Gichard; All Stars – Mya Rasmussen; Makos – Kyra Forrest.
New Zealand Swimming Trust Zonal Emerging Swimmer of the Year: Bobbi Gichard (Greendale Swim Club).
International Swimmer of the Year: Lauren Boyle (United Swimming Club).
National Swimmer of the Year: Lauren Boyle.
Swimmer of the Year with a Disability: Mary Fisher (Capital Swim Club)
Performance Swimming Club of the Year: North Shore Swimming Club.
Volunteer of the Year: Lisa Rowe (Otumoetai Swim Club)
Bill Batson Technical Official of the Year: Christine Cassin (Halswell Swim Club)
Swimming Coach of the Year: Sue Southgate (Aquabladz New Plymouth)
A press release from Swimming New Zealand contributed to this article.