The New Zealand Age Group Championships will be held from May 5th-9th at the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre. All eyes will be focused on World Championships team member Bobbi Gichard and 2013 World Junior Champion Gabrielle Fa’amausili.
550 of the country’s best age group swimmers will be competing in the event. The competition will act as the official trials for the World Junior Championships in Singapore and the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa.
Gichard and Fa’amausili both performed extremely well at the most recent national championships. Gichard won both the 100 and 200 backstroke achieving the qualifying standard for the World Championships in Kazan. She also set the 15 year old national age group record in the 100 backstroke posting a 1:01.46.
Fa’amausili took the 50 backstroke at the championships along with setting the 50 freestyle 15 year old age group record hitting the wall in a time of 25.96. She also currently ranks 18th in the world in the 50 backstroke having posted a 28.41 at the New South Wales State Championships earlier this year.
Also competing are members of the New Zealand team that won medals at the recent Australian Age Group Championships including 14 year old Mya Rasmussen (Kiwi West, Manawatu), Sam McKenzie (Tasman, Nelson), Annabelle Paterson, 16 (United, Auckland) and 13 year olds Chelsey Edwards (SwimZone, Hutt Valley) and Joshua Gilbert (Stratford).
Qualifying times can be found here.
Psych sheets can be found here.
The schedule can be found here.
Results can be found here.