Ashburton’s team that headed to the weekend’s South Island Swimming Championships was (from left) Bailey Tait, Bree Middleton, Blake Farr, Mitchell Veix, Alex Chapman, Hannah King, and coach Shane Jones. Photo supplied.Ashburton swimmers have returned from the South Island Championships with a number of medals to show for their efforts.

The championships were held in Christchurch from Friday to Sunday and saw almost 300 competitors from around the South Island hitting the water to vie for South Island supremacy.

The Jennian Homes Ashburton Swim Team sent a relatively small team of six to the championships and they performed well, making finals and picking up a number of medals.

Blake Farr won gold in the 200m freestyle, silver in the 50m and 100m freestyle and bronze in the 400m freestyle.

He also finished sixth in the 400m individual medley.

Bree Middleton won two golds, in the 200m and 400m freestyle, and took silver in the 800m freestyle along with fourth placings in the 100m and 50m freestyle and a fifth in the 200m individual medley.

Having to swim two years above her age, Hannah King was also in fine form, coming home with a 100 per cent personal best time record, including an outstanding swim in her 800m freestyle race where she dropped 17.77 seconds off her personal best time.

Also chopping a chunk of his personal best in the 50m freestyle was Mitchell Veix, who took 4.96 seconds off his previous best.

Meanwhile, Bailey Tait was seventh in her 50m butterfly race and eighth in her 800m individual medley, and Alex Chapman – swimming at his first South Island championships – was 14th in the 200m breaststroke.

The event was a great lead up to Short Course Nationals which would be held in Auckland in early October, which Farr and Middleton had already qualified for.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 29 August 2018