Canterbury swimmers fare well at age-group champs

Press, 18 February 1980, Page 28

Canterbury swimmers fare well at age-group champs

PA New Plymouth Rickie Binning, of Canterbury, and the Waikato swimmer, Gail Jonson, were the outstanding individual performers at the Hansell’s New Zealand age-group swimming championships which finished at the Kawarcia Pool, New Plymouth, yesterday. Miss Jonson, aged 14, won seven gold medals and one silver during the championships in her age group and set two age-group records. She was awarded the Life Members’ . Trophy for the i‘most outstanding performance” at the championships. She set records in the 200 m medley and the 200 m butterfly — beating the marks previously set by New Zealand’s international

stars, Rebecca Perrott and Monique Rodahl. In the medley, Miss Jonson’s time of 2min 30.4 s beat Miss Perrott’s 1976 mark of 2min 31.21 s and in the butterfly her time of 2min 25.3 s beat Miss Rodahl’s 1976 mark of 2min 28.85.

Miss Binning, in the 15-year-old girls’ events, went one better in the gold medal haul. She won eight golds altogether and two silvers, also setting three age-group records.

Her time of 2min 48.3 s in the 200 m breaststroke beat Jan Lowe’s 1975 time of 2min 53.7 s and in the 100 m breaststroke her time of Imin . 18.7 s beat Deirdre Walls’ 1978 time of Imin 19.95.

Another Canterbury swimmor, Kara Taumaunu, aged

14, who won four gold medals and a bronze during the championships, won the Hansell’s Trophy, awarded to the swimmer who breaks a race record by the biggest margin. Taumaunu’s record-break-ing effort was in the 14-year-old boys’ 200 m backstroke. His time of 2min 18.8 s was a big 7.8 s better than the 1976 mark of the international star, Gary Hurring.

Taumaunu also set a record in the 400 m freestyle with his time off 4min 26.85, beating Grant Forbes’ time of 4min 27.6 s set last year. The internationally experienced Melanie Jones (Canterbury) finished the carnival with five gold medals, including one record, in the 16-year-olds girls’ division and had the best of her tussles with Megan Toh-

ill (Otago), who won three of the events in the same division. Miss Jones’s record was in the 100 m backstroke with a time of Imin 8.35, beating the previous mark of imin Ils shared by Janice Murdoch and Toni Grayburn. Other records were set by Grant Forbes (Canterbury) in the 15-year-olds boys’ 200m'breaststroke; Margaret Hesketh . (Wellington)' and Sarah Morris (Auckland) in the 13-year-old girls’ division, and ‘ Ursula Cross (Auckland) and Myra Snell (Waikato) in the 12-year-old girls divisioii.A total of -21 records were set during the championships. Canterbury gained the most wins during the threeday carnival to win the War Memorial Trophy.