Jellie Pool Thursday 23rd March

A team of 42 competitors participated in the Christchurch Secondary Schools Swimming. All swimmers competed in an age grade race and may have selected an open event and/or relay team. When looking at the results it is the open races that include all ages so winning these races are a lot more difficult. The Open Medley and Freestyle relays are the best four swimmers available from the school to compete against the best there is from other schools. Winning any open event means you are the best school team in that event in Christchurch. 

Our Open Freestyle Boys team deserves special mention. A silver place was gained but the team is made up of 15 and 16 year old competitors. This bodes well for next year when our swimmers are older. Special congratulations to Maddy Horton, Hamish Inwood and Hamish Giddens on your open titles.

The swim team had eleven individual and two relay team championship titles and a total of 23 places were gained. If a comparison is to be made to previous swim team totals, there have been eight teams since 2002 with a greater number of places at this event; however only two Burnside High School swim teams have gained more places since 2011, the Christchurch Earthquake and the loss of QE2. This coincides with the loss of springboard diving which would have traditionally been included in the results table.

Alex Gibson was very close to a record and had to be considered a standout junior swimmer at this meeting.  The 12-13 relay team of Soeren Wells, Lukas Dewit, Jordan Yang and Alex were the best in their age and it will be exciting observing their progress in future years. 

School Sport Canterbury awarded Burnside High School the top co-educational school for 2023 

Special achievements:

Hamish Giddens' selection into a National Age Program. He has represented New Zealand in Australia as part of this programme in the 1500m 800m and 200m Freestyle, achieving silver and bronze places.

Alex Gibson (10WRDS) represented BHS in the National Secondary Schools Open Water Championships in Lake Tikitapu, Rotorua achieving gold in the boys 12-13 category.

The South Island Secondary Schools has been cancelled for 2023. NZ Secondary Schools Nationals is in Wellington, 20-23 July Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre.