Year 11 Wakatipu High student Billie Druett — who’s shifting away from pool racing — was third overall out of 95 swimmers, and first female, in the 1200-metre category of The Ruby on Lake Wānaka, in January.
Then, last month, at the 1500m Meridian Swim Ruataniwha, on Twizel’s Lake Ruataniwha, she was first overall out of 75 swimmers.
And a week later she was again first overall in the stand-alone 1km category of The Whakatipu Legend in Queenstown Bay in a field of 26.
Billie’s mum Kirsten Lilley introduced her to open water swimming in 2023, when she first swam The Ruby and then The Whakatipu Legend 1km, doing relatively well in both.
Last year she also completed her first ocean swim, in Mount Maunganui, where she was part of a winning Wakatipu High triathlon team.
However, her main focus was still pool swimming, and last year she finished second for her age group in the 1500m at the division two nationals in Hamilton.
She qualified for them again this year but pulled out to concentrate on her non-pool swimming.
Billie attributes some of her success to five weeks’ pool and open water training with local Alpine Aqualand coach Denise Andrews.
Though she’ll train in the pool over the next two school terms, "I do want to transition my focus into open water when the next season comes around".
In the pool she’d still look to do 1500, 800m and even 400m swims "just to get my time down", but her next main aim’s a 2.5km swim in Taupo in January.
She’d also like to do some triathlons.
But her biggest aim, in a plan she’s cooked up with Andrews, is to compete in the 10km open water race in the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
Explaining her enjoyment of the sport, she says "whenever I’m in the water I’m like at ease, it’s just like my happy place".
