2015 CANTERBURY CHAMPS MEET REPORT
The Canterbury Champs are an important event on our annual competition calendar acting as a litmus test
for upcoming National events as well being able to bring the team together after a large block of work
during the December January period including our annual camp in Nelson.
This year’s championships, after much debate with the Otago association, changed to a new format where
the Canterbury and Otago medals were decided during the morning sessions and the fastest 8 swimmers
were then brought together to race again in the evening in both Open and Age group finals. This proved to
be very successful requiring fast racing in the morning and then back up again in the evening.
The Canterbury coaches group have asked for some minor changes for next year’s meet to try and enhance
the competition even further and we hope to have these signed off by the end of February.
The performances of many swimmers were well above my expectations while other will be back in the
training pool searching for the extra impact from some specific race training. However all racing is good
racing and a very important part of our continued search for improvement.
Congratulations to Matt Newbitt who qualified for the first time for NAGs. This is a great achievement from
you and very well deserved after a period of quality training.
Congratulations to the Canterbury medallists and in particular to Lucy Gordon (2), Thom Harrison, Felicity
Lowen, Charles Porter (2), Ruby Wagenvoord (2) and Sammy Winward (3) who were successful in taking
out Canterbury titles for their respective age groups.
The team won a total of 11 Gold, 13 Silver and 17 Bronze medals for the Canterbury Champs.
Also a further congratulations to Lucy Gordon (2) and Charles Porter who won overall combined Open
titles in the evening and to Emily Barron and Matt Newbitt who won overall age group combined titles
The team won a total of 5 Gold, 10 Silver and 11 Bronze medals in the combined competitions.
The team completed in 159 events for the week and achieved 101 new personal best times giving a total
PB percentage of 63.52%. Congratulations to Wilson Braam, Olivia Damiano, Amy Hartwell, Cameron
Johnson, Calum Jones, Lucas Marshall, Kasey McGrath, Matt Newbitt, Chris Ryan
While we were unsuccessful in winning the Club Points trophy and our challenge for the Hollander Cup fell
short I was very proud of the team spirit and support for one another.
Our base of swimmers is growing and improving all the time and I know that we will be back challenging
for our rightful spot very soon
Thanks
Dave Prattley
Head Coach