Pippa Mihaka made her debut at the 2022 Apollo Projects New Zealand Swimming Championships at the National Aquatic Centre in Auckland last week.

This event doubled as a trial for New Zealand teams heading to the Commonwealth Games (Birmingham), World Championships (Budapest), the Mare Nostrum Series (Monaco, Barcelona, Canet) and the Junior Pan Pacific Champs (Hawaii).

Tuesday was Pippa’s first event the 100m backstroke and she was one of the youngest in the field. Pippa’s first 50m placed her in the top 4 and her time of 1:05.48 was only half a second off qualifying for the A final. However it was good enough for another age group Waikato record and to place herself in the top 10 females in the country.

Her next event on the Friday was the 50m backstroke. Having been seeded 12th she would have to go all out to give herself an opportunity to swim again that night. Pippa lowered her time and seeding to swim her way into the A final with a time of 30.48, a personal best and new Waikato age group record.

To the final Pippa would be racing 2016 Olympian Helena Gasson and other NZ senior swimmers. She had a simple race plan - to get a great start and swim fast. She would lower her time again with a new PB 30.13 to place 6th in New Zealand and beat her Waikato age group record set earlier in the day. This was an outstanding effort from the 14 year old.

Pippa’s next major event is the 2022 Apollo Projects New Zealand Age Group Swimming Championships in Wellington 19-24 April.