Jenny Ling

 

Opua resident Myra Larcombe has taught countless children how to swim.

 

There's not much that fazes Opua's Myra Larcombe.

Even when the she was awarded The Queen's Service Medal for services to swimming the 90-year-old remained "nonplussed". "Originally I declined because I didn't feel like I was that type of person, I'm a little bit controversial - but I was told to change my mind," she says. "I'm nonplussed, it's what I do. I've been teaching for goodness knows how long...my life was sport, even when I was young."

Larcombe has been involved with swimming and water safety for a number of decades, having been a competitor, instructor, coach, and club administrator. A "freerange kid" growing up on a farm, she was always competitive, she says, and won many swimming races and sports events at high school.

She began working as a swimming instructor in 1946 at Whangarei Swimming Club, and was a key figure in the establishment of the Bay of Islands Swimming Club in 1974 and held various positions there until 2010.

Larcombe also played representative netball, softball and basketball as well as holding many administrative roles. She set a number of New Zealand Masters swimming records between 1978 and 2000. Larcombe set a New Zealand record for 200 metre long course butterfly for 70 to 74 years while competing in the 1997 Pan Pacific Championship. She improved upon this record at the 1998 World Masters, which remained unbroken until April 2017. She also still holds a New Zealand Masters swimming record for the 200m butterfly set in 1997.

Larcombe was appointed as a regional coach for New Zealand Swimming and travelled the northern part of the country, working in clubs and schools to encourage good technique. 

Currently she teaches aqua exercise classes at Oakridge Villas in Kerikeri and is still active as a Top Energy WaterSafe instructor to schools in the Bay of Islands. 

Her dedication to sport was acknowledged in February 2017 with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Halberg awards.

Larcombe has won a string of other awards over the years, including a Sparc Lifetime Achievement Award, Sparc Northland Volunteer of the Year Award, Swim Coaches and Teachers of New Zealand Award for Services to Teaching Swimming in New Zealand, Northland Masters Sportswoman of the Year, and the Brian Maunsell Memorial Trophy.