Otago swimmers continue to punch well above their weight.
A strong Otago crew won another 12 medals on the final two days of the national short-course swimming championships in Auckland at the weekend.
They add to the 17 medals they won across the opening three days last week to bring the tally to 29 medals.
Neo Salomonsson, competing in the male 15-years grade, won gold in the 100m freestyle to shatter a 9-year-old Otago age-group record by over 1sec.
Salomonsson (Kiwi) also won silver in the 200m butterfly, in which he broke his Otago age-group record by nearly 2.5sec.
Fellow Kiwi swimmer Alfie Weatherston Harvey also had a strong couple of days, winning gold in the male 16-years 1500m freestyle, which also led to him claiming bronze in the open 1500m freestyle.
He went under the 16min mark for the first time, clipping 6sec off his personal best time to finish in 15min 56.48sec.
Kiwi swimmer Kale Twist won bronze in the men’s 50m freestyle to break his own Otago record, and Kiwi youngster Sophie Wellington won bronze — her first national medal — in the female 13 years 50m backstroke.
Wanaka swimmer Luisa Palmer added four medals to her tally in the female 14-years age-group.
She won gold in the 200m IM and silver in the 50m and 100m freestyle and 50m backstroke.
Esme Paterson (Neptune) defended her national open women’s 200m butterfly title.
She comfortably won gold in 2min 12.58sec, more than 2.5sec ahead of the next swimmer, and earned a B qualifying time for the world short-course championships in Budapest later this year.
Ruby Heath also won gold in the open 800m freestyle.
