Finn Kennard-Campbell turned up to the National Short Course swimming championships three years ago and was advised by an accomplished New Zealand coach to “take it easy.” A gold medal and National U13 age group record in the 50m backstroke put paid to any easy swimming in the future. Kennard-Campbell stunned with his talent and is presently the top ranked U16 backstroke swimmer in the country. He holds the national U13, 14 and 15 records in the stroke as well as winning a bronze medal in the New Zealand Open Championships earlier this year. Kennard-Campbell was born in New Zealand, but moved to England when he was three years old. He returned to New Zealand when he was nine and remembers his first competitive experience in the water was a humble one. “I was in Year 8 and turned up to one of those compulsory swimming sports days they have at school. I didn’t really want to be there, but I did really well and things kind of snowballed from there,” he says. For the past two years Kennard-Campbell has been a leading member of the Westlake Boys’ High School swim team who have won the National Teams Championships. In 2015 Kennard-Campbell was awarded the leading individual award after winning eight gold medals. “Last year’s event was in Hamilton and I really enjoyed it. It was my first experience swimming for Westlake and it was great to have so much success, but I feel this year was more challenging because there were a greater variety of swimmers,” he says. This year’s event was staged in Wellington and Kennard-Campbell won gold in the 50 and 100m backstroke as well as the 50m fly and freestyle. He collected a further five silver medals. “I really enjoy the team aspect of this event. It’s quite tribal and you have to work together. In the heats the winner gets 40 points and the fourth place finisher one point so it’s important to swim strongly from the start. In the finals the winner gets 40 points and the last placed swimmer 30 points so you can have outstanding individuals, but it takes a team effort to win,” Kennard-Campbell explains. Jonathan Selman was in top form for Westlake. The 14 year-old won five gold medals, one silver and one bronze. Kennard-Campbell was a recent receipt of the Golden Holmes scholarship which helps funds his swimming costs. The leading individual was the outstanding 13-year-old prospect from Tawa College, Bronson Lloyd, who finished with seven gold medals and two silvers. Others of note were Zac Dell, 15, from Pukekohe High School with four gold medals and one bronze and Sungu Kim, 14 from Rosmini College with four golds. The leading Para-Swimmer was 17 year old Chris Arbuthnott (Palmerston North Boys’ High School) who won all of his S9 category swims. The final standing were: Westlake Boys 2043, Wellington College 1974, Palmerston North Boys 1425, St Andrews College 1370, Napier Boys 1146, Hamilton Boys 1091, Pukekohe High 813, Auckland Grammar 805, Stratford High 672.5, Taupo Nui-A-Tia 587. Looking for USA Scholarships? Check out USA CONNECT Looking for $40000 University of Waikato Study Scholarships CLICK HERE Looking for Sport Exchange Opportunities to Australia CLICK HERE Diocesan School for Girls returned to Auckland on Monday as New Zealand Secondary Schools Swimming Champions for the first time.
Dio won the event in Wellington last weekend ahead of close neighbours and keen rivals St Cuthbert’s College and three-time defending champions Napier Girls’ High School. Dio won with 1,839 points, just ahead of St Cuthbert’s on 1770.5 and with Napier GHS on 1,433. Dio’s Sports Manager and head of aquatics, Angie Winstanley-Smith, said the team was thrilled to win the NZSS Swimming title, realising their goal. “Our swimming captain, Annabelle Paterson, has just been in Hawaii for the Junior Pan Pacific Championships and she has come through Dio with a lot of great swimmers. But we have never really gone to this event and targeted the team aspect. She said I really want to go after this title, I believe we have got the swimmers to do it so can you help me go for it? “Traditionally we’ve only sent a few students, but with Annabelle’s enthusiasm and some parental help we assembled a group of swimmers to prepare and 17 went down to Wellington in the end.” Angie said it was a tough battle over the weekend, especially in edging out rivals St Cuthbert’s. “They’ve got phenomenal swimmers and it’s a healthy rivalry we have across all sports. “What’s really cool about this event is the team aspect over chasing individual wins and times. The girls were swimming lots more races and entering plenty of events that they usually wouldn’t do. It’s all about contributing to the team, so winning points in every race was paramount and the swimmers just did event after event. “We had Gina Galloway who got a stack of medals and she’s a backstroker by trade but got right in the mix in the butterfly and got a silver medal there. The competition was super-tight as well. “After the first day we were about 90 points behind St Cuthbert’s and then after day two we were 14 points ahead.” Points were awarded in every race, with the school with the most points at the end declared the winner. In finals, 40 points were awarded for a first place in a race, 39 for second, 38 for third and down to 30 for 10th. "So 13 points is one swimmer in one race. “On day two the girls woke up and were raring to go and the real focus was getting as many points on the board as we could and then on Sunday we just had to match St Cuthbert’s. They had a finalist; we had a finalist and so on. “Napier GHS and Waikato Diocesan weren’t out of it either, and they ended up having a real tug of war for that third spot. “For us it was down to the last race. We went into the last event with about a 60-point lead – but that’s only two finalists so it was just a case of maintaining that, which is what we did.” As well as Swimming, Dio is making a splash in other aquatic sports too. Dio’s senior team finished fourth at the NZSS Secondary School water polo Championships in April, while the school’s intermediate team won the recent AIMS Games (Years 5 and 6) and their junior team won and their senior team finished third at the recent NZSS Underwater Hockey nationals. Angie is a former elite age grade swimmer and competed for her home nation Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics in water polo. She’s been at Dio for two years and has also recently been appointed coach of the NZ Women’s water polo side. “We came fourth in the NZSS water polo championships earlier this year, improving from ninth last year, reflecting a focus on development we’ve put in place. We have just won back-to-back AIMS title, so hopefully the results at the bottom end will start coming through and next year we should be strong at intermediate, junior and senior level.” The 2016 junior North Island water polo championships are coming up in November and Angie says that Dio has an outside shot at winning that if they play well. Then there’s the school’s underwater hockey success. “They just did phenomenally, the juniors won their event and the seniors only finished fifth at the Northern Region tournament and went on to win bronze at nationals. They have great coaches, who are also Dio old girls putting back into the school.” What’s the overlap of students competing in more than one of these sports? “The swimmers not so much, because they are busy enough with that, but there are five water polo girls in the swimming team and then there are about four underwater hockey girls who play water polo as well.” NZSS Swimming Championships, Wellington 9-11 September – top 10 schools (girls): Diocesan School for Girls 1839, St Cuthbert’s College 1770.5, Napier Girls 1433, Waikato Diocesan 1355.5, Columba College 1062, Pukekohe High School 1020, Mt Albert Grammar School 813,Wellington Girls’ College 791, Baradene College 732.5, Wellington East Girls’ College 656. Diocesan School for Girls – individual results: Annabelle Paterson (16 and over) 1st 200m Back 2nd 100m Free 2nd 100m Back Alice Waldow (13 years) 1st 200m Back 2nd 50m Fly 2nd 200m IM 2nd 100m fly 3rd 100m Free 3rd 50m Free 3rd 50m Back 3rd 100m Back Gina Galloway (15 years) 1st 100m Back 1st 50m Fly 1st 200m Back 3rd 200m IM 2nd 100m Fly Conor Tarrant (15 years) 2nd 200m Breast 2nd 200m IM 2nd 50m Breast 2nd 100m Breast 3rd 50m Breast skins Imogen Rodgers (15 years) 2nd 50m Back 2nd 200m Back 2nd 100m Back Claudia Avis (13 years) 2nd 200m Free 3rd 200m IM Emily Doughty 3rd 100m Breast 15 and under 200m Medley Relay – 1st place Gina Galloway Conor Tarrant Alice Waldow Alice Segedin 15 and under 200m Free Relay – 1st Place Alice Waldow Conor Tarrant Imogen Rodgers Gina Galloway 16 and over free Relay – 2nd Place Alice Segedin Isobel Avis Jess Shorter Robinson Annabelle Paterson 16 and over Medley Relay – 2nd Place Imogen Rodgers Emily Doughty Isobel Avis Annabelle Paterson. Other team members who contributed over the weekend Zoe Dawson Taylor Gyde Charlotte Joblin Polina Kudrow Nicole Lockie Hannah Mercer Zoe Mercer Looking for USA Scholarships? Check out USA CONNECT Looking for $40000 University of Waikato Study Scholarships CLICK HERE Looking for Sport Exchange Opportunities to Australia CLICK HERE |
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