Pukekohe Swimmer Leads Way in Inaugural National Schools Championship

Pukekohe’s Liana Smith was the individual star of the inaugural New Zealand Secondary Schools Swimming Championships held in Hamilton over the weekend.

The Strathallan College student won six individual titles as well as two wins in the Skins event at the three-day championships held at Waterworld.

The first schools event, run by Swimming New Zealand, attracted 320 swimmers from 107 schools from Otago to Northland.

Wellington College were the leading school overall ahead of St Peters (Cambridge) and Hamilton Boys.

Smith, from the Pukekohe club, headed off Wellington’s Emily McGill (Chilton St James School, Capital club) who won five individual finals and two Skins. Best of the boys was Papakura’s Joshua Asplin (Rosehill College) also with five individual titles.

He headed off a group with four wins comprising Max Polianski, Erik Kahr, Hayden Church and Kelsi Boocock, who have all enjoyed a strong year with success at the New Zealand and Australian age group championships.

Swimming New Zealand Events Manager, Kent Stead said both the organisation and schools were delighted with the first schools championship.

“The response was excellent, and exceeded our expectation. It was a great opportunity for swimmers to be recognised within their schools, and have the opportunity to represent their schools,” he said.

“We incorporated a number of relays into the programme to pit school against school and also added some fun with the Skins events, which are an elimination format down to a final which had massive support from the swimmers and supporters.

“There was outstanding support from schools from the South island in particular and the feedback suggests it will be bigger next year and we will look to add a further session to the programme.”

Full results: www.swimmingnz.org.nz