Neo Salomonsson and Alfie Weatherston-Harvey are making quite the name for themselves after an impressive two years in the pool.
Together, the Otago pair have won 46 medals at national, regional and Otago meets in 2023 and 2024 — and they could be in for more at Dunedin club Kiwi’s long-course challenge at Moana Pool on Sunday.
Salomonsson, 15, is a versatile sprinter who specialises in butterfly, and also competes in freestyle and backstroke.
He won 11 medals in 2023 — one gold, six silver and four bronze — and followed that impressive form with 17 medals this season, including a mammoth 12 golds.
His success does not end there.
Since starting competitive swimming at 10, Salomonsson has broken 32 Otago age-group records, 26 of those in the past two years. He still holds 18 records, having broken his own records 14 times.
Salomonsson was thrilled to break the national 100m butterfly record for the 15-years age group with 55.75sec in Christchurch two weeks ago.
"I felt really happy," Salomonsson said.
He now set his sights high and will hunt down Dunedin Olympian Danyon Loader’s national, and Otago, 100m long-course butterfly 15-years record of 56.38sec set in 1991 this weekend.
Weatherston-Harvey, 16, a specialist long-distance freestyle and 200m backstroke swimmer, has been just as impressive.
He won three medals in 2023 and has won 15 medals so far this season, consisting of eight gold, five silver and two bronze.
At the South Island short-course championships in March, Weatherston-Harvey won five gold medals and was the fastest swimmer overall from all participants at the meet. He then won his first national title in the 1500m freestyle at the national age-group championships in April.
"I was pretty ecstatic, to be honest," Weatherston-Harvey said.
Two years ago, he broke the Otago 200m backstroke record, and at 16 broke the 800m freestyle long-course record.
Since then he has rebroken the 800m record and shaved an impressive 11.34sec off the previous record.
Earlier this month, Weatherston-Harvey represented New Zealand in the tri series against Australia in Hamilton.
Both swimmers, who are coached by Lars Humer, enjoy watching each other succeed and want to see how far they can go, including swimming at the Olympics one day.
Watching three Dunedin swimmers in Erika Fairweather, Caitlin Deans and Kane Follows compete at the Paris Olympics proved they could chase their dreams.
"There’s definitely evidence of where we can go," Weatherston-Harvey said.
