Jack Plummer (in flight) Kokoro Frost (at the wall)
Following the success of the Raptors swimmers at the College Sport Wellington Championships, they were back in the water for the Wellington Regional Relay Championships. This is a fast and enjoyable event that provides swimmers with the rare chance to work as a team.
Events are held in age categories from 9 and under up to the open category for men and women.
Capital swimming club in Wellington traditionally field strong teams at this event and this year was no exception with NZ stars Chelsey Edwards and Lewis Clareburt competing.
However, the Raptors were in sparkling form, winning the Open Mens and Womens Medley relays (one swimmer of each different stroke). The men’s team then made it a clean sweep by taking out the freestyle relay as well. Even more remarkable was that they smashed the Medley record held by the Capital team led by John Gatfield from 2012 by over 1.5 seconds, taking the time to 1:43.73. They were also only 3 hundredths of a second off the freestyle record and beat the second placed team by over 5 seconds.
The Mens Medley Relay team were Kokoro Frost, Eli Litten, Tawhiti Te Momo and Jack Plummer. For the Freestyle, Robin Shen stepped in to replace Eli Litten.
Record breakers - Jack Plummer, Tawhiti Te Momo , Eli Litten and Kokoro Frost
The winning Women’s Medley relay team consisted of Stevie Shipman, Tori Grout, Annie Jencova and Isabella Tunnicliffe. They also gained a Silver medal in the Freestyle.
The senior Raptors Swimmers with silverware
The Raptors picked up medals in other age groups as well;
Jay Thorne, Tom Duncan, Noah Ireland Spicer, Harry Skelsey picked up a Silver medal in the U14 Boys Freestyle and a Bronze medal in the U14 Boys Medley;
Melissa Cockburn, Riza Hassan, Lily Duncan and Imogen Waite won a silver in the U14 girls freestyle;
Hannah Huria, Koanga Tatana-Waihi, Maia Adams and Charlie Pollard-Simmiss won a Bronze in the U16 Girls Medley and the Freestyle and;
Greer Winter, Elsa Kelly, Lara Wilkes and Michaela Gray took Bronze in the U12 Girls Freestyle.
Even the coach Jon Winter was not going to be left out, cruising to a Gold alongside Ajay Waters, Lisa Cowley and Jacqui McKenzie in the “30 and over” freestyle event. Not bad for a team with a combined age of 171 years! Jack Plummer’s share in the Medley Relay record made it the 2nd event in a row at which he had been in record breaking form following his success at the College Sport Wellington Champs.
For those that would like to see the Raptors a bit closer to home they will be racing at the Coastlands Aquatic Centre on 8th August and 5th September as they build towards the Wellington Champs and NZ Short Course Champs later in the year.
Ends
