16-20 April 2019

Matthew Gray, Luka Foy and Natasha Pannett competed at the ultimate National Swimming event in Wellington in the first week of the holidays. This event brings together the best of NZ’s swimmers aged between 13 and 18 to compete for age group titles. 

Luka, Matthew and Natasha have dedicated huge amounts of time before and after school training to ensure that they met the strict qualifying times for their preferred events. If you don’t qualify, you cannot enter this event.

The highlight for Luka and Matt was making finals. Matt was ranked in the top 10 going into the 400m Individual Medley and placed 8th (with a long course PB) in the final. 

Luka was ranked 16th going into the 50m backstroke event and placed 9th (with an overall PB) in the final.

Other top 15 results:

• 200m Fly – Matthew placed 11th (long course PB)
• 100m Backstroke – Luka placed 12th (overall PB)
• 200m Breaststroke – Matthew placed 12th (long course PB)
• 800m Freestyle – Natasha placed 15th (close to her PB)

The other events for the swimmers were 100m breaststroke and 200m backstroke for Matthew (placing 18th and 24th respectively); 200m backstroke and 100m freestyle for Luka (placing 19th in 22nd respectively) and the 400m and 200 m freestyle events for Natasha (placing 21st and 28th respectively).

All three swimmers had an amazing time both in an out of the pool. The event is very competitive but it also provides an opportunity to meet up with old and new swimming friends from around the country. The next big event is the short course champs in Auckland in the October school holidays.