Seven St Paul’s swimmers had their first swim meet post-lockdown at the Waikato Winter Short Course meet held in Te Awamutu over the weekend of 25-26 July.

Sam Peoples and Ollie Mouat in particular showed some hot early season form, bagging six personal best (PB) times each in a packed and intense two days. Adrian Wong also swam very well, collecting three PBs. Ben Littlejohn also had a good meet, breaking the Waikato 18 year olds record for the 50m butterfly.

However, it was Laura Littlejohn’s meet breaking four Waikato Age group records in various events. She also unofficially broke the New Zealand age group record for the 16 years 100m freestyle by more than a second in swimming 54.52 seconds. This time is less than a second off the NZ Open Women’s record and represents a great start to the season for Laura. A great first hit out for all the St Paul’s swimmers.

Over the weekend of 1-2 August, Laura was in the action again, this time officially setting New Zealand age group records in the 16 and 17 year old categories for her 100m freestyle (with a time of 54.49 seconds), and 16 year old 200m freestyle (1:59.69). A great effort from Laura!