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Howick Pakuranga to defend national junior swimming honours

Nearly 500 swimmers from 85 clubs will splash into action tomorrow for the New Zealand Junior Championships in Auckland.

The championships, for swimmers aged 12 years and under, will be staged over three days at the Sir Owen G Glenn National Aquatic Centre, at the AUT Millennium.

The powerful Howick Pakuranga club from the Counties Manukau region will be looking to defend their overall title won last year, and expect to find plenty of competition from North Shore, Swim Zone (Wellington) and the 2014 top club, United from Auckland.

Last year’s two leading individual swimmers are returning. Alice Waldow (United) will compete in the 12 year category and Tarquin Magner (Whakatane) in the 11 years division, after both won 10 individual medals in Wellington last year, both with seven golds.

Howick Pakuranga will again be looking for a boost from their top performers in last year’s event led by Ryan Oliver, who won nine medals and Gordon Mei with three gold medals.

It is the third time that the championships have been staged as a single event, starting from 4pm on Friday with further sessions from 8am and 4pm on Saturday and 8am on Sunday.

CAPTION: Alice Waldo from United in action on her way to winning 10 medals in the national junior swimming championships last year.

Photo credit: BW Media