Swimming teams return successfully from Aust.

Press, 26 January 1988, Page 32

Swimming teams return successfully from Aust.

Teams from the Wharenui and Avon Aquatics swimming clubs have returned from successful trips to state championships in Australia. A team of Wharenui swimmers competed at the Queensland championships in Brisbane, the biggest state championship in Australia.

. There were entries from 104 Queensland clubs and the standard of competition was boosted by swimmers from the United States and Europe, and included the New Zealand butterfly champion, Anthony Mosse. He won the men’s 200 m butterful in 2min 2.535.

The Avon team travelled to the Victorian championships in Melbourne. The coaches of both teams, Rainer Goltzsche (Wharenui) and Brett Naylor (Avon), .were delighted with the per-

formances of their squads.

Anna Simcic (Avon) won the Victorian open 100 m and 200 m backstroke titles and came within reach of the qualifying time for the Seoul Olympics in both events. Simcic won the 100 m backstroke in Imin 5.685, which is 1.33 s outside the qualifying time for Seoul. In the 200 m final her time was 2min 19.295, and that is 2.14 s off the Seoul target time. In Brisbane, the Wharenui team won 18 medals in open and age-group competition, and at Melbourne, the Avon team returned with 15 open and age-group medals.

All swimmers in the Wharenui squad achieved at least one personal best and only one swimmer of the nine in the Avon squad failed to achieve a personal best.

The Australians are renowned for producing longdistance freestyle swimmers, but in the women’s 1500 m freestyle final, Wharenui provided four of the 10 finalists. Grant Forbes, from the Christchurch club, who won the Victorian open men’s 100 m breaststroke title, also swam in Brisbane but could not repeat his Melbourne form and finished fifth in Imin 7.475. The Wharenui women’s medley relay team was delighted to finish second in the final and even more delighted to learn it bettered the New Zealand record with

a time of 4min 31.265, set by an Auckland team in 1985. The previous record was 4min 32.095. Medal winners in the Wharenui squad were: Mens: Matthew Davenport, 15 and 16 years, 200 m breasttroke, 3rd; Grant Harris, 14 years, 100 m backstroke, 2. Women: Linda, Robinson, open 400 m medley, 3; 16 years, 100 m butterfly, 3; 100 m freestyle, 3, Olwyn Bruce, 15 years, 200 m breaststroke, 2; 100 m breaststroke, 1. Phillippa Langrell, 15 years, 100 m butterfly, 3. Michaela Ross, 13 and 14 years, 200 m breaststroke, 2. Nicola West, 12 years and under, 200 m backstroke, 1; 100 m backstroke, 1; 200 m butterfly, 1; 100 m freestyle, 3; 200 m medley, 2; 200 m breaststroke, 2. Open women’s 4 x 100 medley relay, 2. Medal winners in the Avon squad were: Men: David Newlans, open 1500 m freestyle, 2. Women: Anna Simcic, open 100 m butterfly, 3; 100 m backstroke, 1; 200 m backstroke, 1; 200 m medley, 2; 50m backstroke, 3. 16 years, 100 m butterfly, 3; 200 m backstroke, 2; 100 m freestyle, 3; 200 medley, 3. Julianne Dalton, 15 years, 100, freestyle, 3; 200 m medley, 3; 100 m butterfly, 2. Sharleen Joyce, 14 years, 100 m butterfly, 3. Michelle Timms, 18 and over, 100 m breaststroke, 3.