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The start of something extraordinary

Howick Pakuranga star adds to golden times in age group swimming

Thirteen year old Counties Manukau swimmer Paige Schendelaar-Kemp has claimed her fifth gold medal on the third night of finals at the Mayfair Pools New Zealand Age Group Swimming Championships in Wellington tonight.

Schendelaar-Kemp, from the Howick Pakuranga club, took out the 13 years 200m freestyle final tonight to add to the gold medals won in the 100m freestyle, 400m individual medley, 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle titles on the first two days.
She highlighted another strong night with two further national age group records on the third of five nights of finals at the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre.

Christchurch’s Sophia Batchelor continued on her record-setting way in winning the 16 years 100m backstroke. She clocked 1:02.06 to win the final, which broke the old mark held by Commonwealth Games representative Natalie Wiegersma in 1:02.41. It is the 20th current national age group record held by the Aquagym club swimmer.

The other record went to Hayden Church who won the 14 years 100m freestyle in 53.82s. It proved a brilliant race between the Howick Pakuranga clubmates Church and Bayley Main, who finished 8/100ths of a second behind with both swimmers going under the old national mark by 54.26s.

Main was not out of pocket after winning the 50m butterfly earlier in the night, his third gold medal of the meet, the same as Natasha Lloyd (North Canterbury) who picked up her third title in winning the 16 years 200m breaststroke.

The championship finishes on Saturday.