Young Auckland swimmer breaks long-standing record

Auckland teenager Gabrielle Fa’amausili enjoyed a double record-breaking effort on the second day of the Mayfair Pools national age group swimming championships in Wellington yesterday.

The 13 year old clocked 58.99s to top the qualifiers in the heats of the 100m freestyle at the Wellington Region Aquatic Centre. This broke the old record for 13 year olds of 59.18s set by Olympian Sarah Catherwood in 1994.

The Laser Mt Eden swimmer then went quicker again in winning the evening final, lowering the mark to 58.52.

Canterbury star Sophia Batchelor added to her long list of national records in winning the 17 years 50m butterfly title. Batchelor (AquaGym) clocked 26.68 in winning the final when was nearly a full second under the mark, to establish her 24th current national age group record.

Her time was only 2/100ths of a second outside the national open record set by North Shore’s Samantha Richter last year which will set up an exciting battle between the pair in next month’s State national open championships which doubles at the world championship trials.

Whangaparaoa 15 year old Wilrich Coetzee continued on his winning ways. The Coast club swimmer took out the 15 years 50m breaststroke in 31.04 and the 200m backstroke in 2:07.93 to make it four gold medals in two days.

He is the leading individual closely followed by Batchelor, Yeonsu Lee (North Shore) and Paige Schendelaar-Kemp (Howick Pakuranga) who all have won  three gold medals so far.
The championships continue until Saturday.

Full details and results: www.swimmingnz.org.nz

CAPTION: Gabrielle Fa’amausili (Laser Mt Eden) in action during the 13 years 100m freestyle at the Mayfair Pools national age group swimming championships at the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre.

Credit: BWP Photography/Swimming NZ