This was demonstrated at the 25th annual Neptune Queen's Birthday meeting last weekend when nine Otago short-course records were broken - the most at a major local meeting over the past decade.
The improving fortunes of the Neptune club illustrate how the competitive edge has returned, lifting standards.
Three years ago, the club, which celebrated its 50th jubilee last weekend, had only four swimmers competing at the Otago championships. It had 31 competing last weekend.
There is now more of a competition between Neptune and Waves, the club that has dominated Otago swimming over the past three years.
Andy Adair's Waves club has made its mark on the national scene and is now one of the best in New Zealand.
During Duncan Laing's heyday, Neptune was one of the strongest clubs in New Zealand swimming and it is good for the sport in the province to see it is again on an upward cycle.
A key factor in the rise of Neptune's fortunes was the appointment of Ukrainian Gennadiy Labara as the coach of the Otago Swimming Coaching Academy (Osca) training squad 18 months ago.
He recently signed another contract with Osca for a further five years until 2013.
Labara has adopted a long-term plan and is training his swimmers for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the London Olympics in 2012 and beyond.
"It is very important to develop correct technique in younger swimmers," he said.
"We put a strong focus on all strokes in our squad. This showed through at the Neptune meet with very good medley results from Emily Poon and other OSCA swimmers."
Six of the nine Otago records broken at the championships went to Osca swimmers.
The other three were broken by Andy Adair's Waves club swimmers. Poon (13), a Columba College pupil, broke three records in the girls aged 12 and 13 grade - 50m freestyle (28.23sec), 50m butterfly (31.19sec), and 200m individual medley (2min 31.36sec).
The high standard achieved by the holders of the previous records gives a good indication of Poon's potential.
The 50m butterfly record was held by the talented Hannah Shanks since 1995 and the 200m individual medley record was set by New Zealand junior representative Phoebe Williams (Waves) two years ago.
Osca swimmers won 13 out of the 22 individual medley events at the Neptune meet, more than all other clubs combined.
Neptune gained an upset team win by the narrow margin of 7.5 points from Waves.
