Swimmers off to compete in N.S.W.

Press, 10 January 1983, Page 22

Swimmers off to compete in N.S.W.

Six of Canterbury's leading swimmers will leave tomorrow to compete in the New South Wales championships in Sydney over the next two week-ends. Five swimmers. Grant Forbes. Grant Gillard, Paul Tozer, Jennifer Queen and Kirsten Mclntosh, are from the Wharenui club. The other is Lisa Chamberlain, from the New Brighton club. All the swimmers have had to meet qualifying times set by the coach of the Wharenui club. Clive Power. The times are based on the fifteenth fastest time in all events at the Brisbane Commonwealth Games last October.

The three girls will swim in the New South Wales age-group championships next week-end and will compete again the next week-end in the state open championships. The men will swim only in the open championships. Some of the swimmers may

return to Australia in February for the national championships in Hobart. These six swimmers, and others in Canterbury, have until January 31 to meet the stringent qualifying standards, also set by Mr Power. These are based on the tenth fastest time at the Brisbane Games. The ultimate goal this year will be to achieve the time of the slowest finalist in any event at the Brisbane Games. That is the qualifying time that will earn the swimmer a trip to Britain and Europe in August for several national chanpionships. While the elite of the Wharenui club are competing in Australia, the best competitors from the younger age-groups will compete in the Auckland championships. Twelve swimmers from the club will go north with Mrs Nola O'Connell as coach. The swimmers all qualified for the trip by finishing in the top seven placings at the Speedo Teleprinter finals in December.