Ashburton swimmers (from left) Mitchell Veix, Blake Farr, Bree Middleton and Hannah King are competing at the age group nationals in Wellington this week.Four young Ashburton swimmers are off to Wellington this week to compete against New Zealand’s best swimmers in their age groups.

Wellington is this week hosting the 2019 National Age Group Swimming Championships and among the swimmers set to take to the starting blocks over what is set to be a tough few days in the water are Ashburton Swim Team members Bree Middleton, Blake Farr, Hannah King and Mitchell Veix.

For Veix and King, both 13, it will be their first time competing at a national championship, and all four Ashburton swimmers have had to produce top swims already this season in order to qualify to be eligible to compete at the national level.

Veix’s main focus will be butterfly. He’s set to swim in the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly, with the 400m individual medley also added in.

King will hit the water in the 200m breaststroke, the 400m individual medley, and the 800m and 400m freestyle, while Farr, 15, is focused solely on freestyle, competing over the 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, and 1500m distances.

Middleton, 15, is also a freestyler and she’ll compete over 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m.

It was over the 100m distance where Middleton won bronze at the Victorian State Championships in Australia in December.

Ashburton swim team coach Shane Jones’ hopes for all four of his young charges at the national age group champs, are for them to swim new personal bests and make finals.

It is set to be a huge event, with 734 of the best age group swimmers from around the country set to come together for five intense days of competition where club, regional and national honours are at stake.

Action is set to get under way tomorrow in Wellington and it will run until Saturday.

It will follow a format of heats in the mornings and finals in the late afternoon.

Along with the hundreds of swimmers, around 200 coaches and more than 300 supporters are expected to converge on the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre in Kirbirnie for the big week of swimming.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 15 April 2019