The Otago swimmers won nine gold medals, and broke one Otago record, between them at the South Island championships at Moana Pool at the weekend.
Salomonsson broke a 17-year Otago record when he won gold in the men’s 15-16 200m butterfly.
He finished in 26.49sec to better the previous record of 26.82sec set by McGregor Fea, of Queenstown, in 2007.
Salomonsson showed his ability across various distances in winning gold in the 100m freestyle (56.20sec), 100m butterfly (59.97sec) and 200m butterfly (2 min 15.98sec).
Weatherston Harvey also picked up a five golds in the men’s 15-16 grade.
The Kiwi swimmer finished the 200m freestyle in 2min 02.51sec, 400m freestyle in 4min 13.87sec, 800m freestyle in 8min 47.95sec and the 1500m in 16min 42.44sec — more than 1min ahead of his runner-up.
He also won the 400m individual medley in 4min 56.49sec.
Luan Grobbelaar won the men’s over-17 100m backstroke in 59.55sec.
He then added the 200m individual medley in 2min 07.18sec.
Grobbelaar’s Neptune team-mates, Ruby Heath and Emilia Finer, produced a nail-biting finish in the women’s over-17 400m freestyle.
But eventually it was Heath who came out on top, winning in 4min 26.14sec, only 00.02sec ahead of Finer. Heath also won the 200m freestyle.
Zac Reid won the men’s over-17 200m freestyle in 1min 51.67sec, Charlotte Aburn won the women’s 15-16 400m freestyle in 4min 39.51sec, Lily McGrath won the women’s 12-14 50m breaststroke in 36.31sec and Kale Twist won the men’s over-17 50m freestyle in 23.44sec.
Isabella Miller secured gold in the women’s 12-14 50m freestyle (29sec) and 100m freestyle (1min 03.07sec).
Poppy Henderson set an Otago record when she won silver in the women’s over-17 50m butterfly.
She finished in 28.46sec, breaking Oamaru swimmer Isobel Ryan’s record of 29.20sec set in 2015.
