18 year old Sam Perry took both the 100 freestyle and 50 butterfly on the second day of the Mayfair Pools New Zealand National Age Group Championships which are being held in Wellington.
Perry won the 100 freestyle in a time of 50.76, breaking the age group record in the event. He broke Daniel Bell‘s record of 50.93 which was set in 2009.
Perry also went on to win the 17-18 year old 50 butterfly in a time of 25.10.
The competition is being used as a qualifier for both the Junior Pan Pacific Championships and Youth Olympics. Unfortunately for Perry he is too old to compete in either one of the championship meets which are being held in August.
Although he came second to Perry in the 100 freestyle 18 year old Julian Weir was happy to have qualified for both meets by one one-hundredth of a second. Weir posted a 51.45 ducking under the Pan Pacific qualifying time of 51.46.
Another Junior Pan Pacific qualifier 18 year old Bradlee Ashby is having an outstanding competition. On the first day Ashby finished second in the men’s 400 freestyle, posting a 4:01.34, under both the Junior Pan Pacific and Youth Olympic qualifying standards. He continued to add to his event schedule at both meets winning the 400 IM on day two recording a winning time of 4:26.52.
14 year old Gabrielle Fa’amausili collected her first gold of the competition winning the women’s 14 year old 100 freestyle posting a time of 58.32.
The results from the second day of competition were a great follow up to day one where four athletes qualified for Junior Pan Pacific Championships and nine athletes qualified for the Youth Olympics.
17 year old Michael Mincham highlighted the first night winning the men’s 17-18 year old 400 freestyle in a time of 3:59.11, qualifying for both events, “It was definitely a bit of both. I wanted to go really hard for the Youth Olympics time and at the same time I wanted to swim my own race,” Mincham said.
“The other guys were really fast and I had to build the back end of the 400.”
Mincham trains at the Southport School on the Gold Coast, where he earned a scholarship, “It’s great on the Gold Coast. I couldn’t ask for a better place to train than Southport. The training environment is amazing.”
“My other target this week is the 800m freestyle. I am targeting another qualifying time and better what I did at the Opens and go sub 8:07.”
In the women’s 200 butterfly Chelsea Ouwehand took the 17-18 year old women’s event in a time of 2:20.02. She was followed by Catlin Rennell who touched in a tiem of 2:22.19. Both women were under the Youth Olympic standard of 2:24.75.
Jackson Cropp and Andrew Trembath had a great battle for the victory in the men’s 17-18 year old 200 backstroke. Cropp eventually took the event in a time of 2:05.34 followed by Trembath who finished in a time of 2:05.84. Both athletes qualified for the Youth Olympic team, but missed the Pan Pacific Championships qualifying time.
Full results can be found here
I need to meet this guy.