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

Ashburton’s Haxby Hefford was in the medals at the New Zealand Universities Rowing Championships.Two young Ashburton Rowing Club members have returned from the New Zealand University Rowing Championships with a golden glow.

Haxby Hefford and Grace Wilson have both left school but have kept up their rowing while studying at Otago University, and at the weekend’s New Zealand University Rowing Championships at Lake Karapiro they showed they were both still a force to be reckoned with on the water.

Hefford won three golds, including in the men’s varsity single sculls.

He also teamed up with Corey Lewis to take gold in the double sculls, and with Lewis, Dylan Davis, Daniel Ward and cox Henry Shaw to take gold in the coxed quad.

Hefford was also part of the Otago coxed men’s eight which came fifth.

Wilson also finished the regatta with three podium finishes, taking two golds and a silver.

Wilson was part of the Otago coxed women’s eight which won gold, and took gold in the coxed quad sculls along with Hannah Coulter, Sophie Thompson, Haylee Budd and cox Lauren Gibb.

Wilson also teamed up with Budd to contest the double sculls and the duo came second.

The New Zealand University Championship regatta was raced over Friday and Saturday.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 14 April 2019

Day two of Canterbury’s inter-centre netball competition is set to provide a good early-season test for Ashburton College A tomorrow.

When play gets under way at Ashburton’s EA Networks Centre at 9.30am, the Ashburton College A side will be one of the first on court, and one of only a handful of teams looking to maintain their unbeaten record from the first day last Sunday.

Their two opposing teams on the competition’s second and final day are two fellow high school teams, and for College A coach Kaye Kennedy that’s a good thing.

This season Ashburton College have to fight for their spot in the Canterbury secondary schools’ SuperNet competition, so tomorrow’s two games will be a good test to see where they’re at against some other school sides.

Ashburton College finished sixth in SuperNet’s top grade last year and the bottom three teams – which included Ashburton College A – from that grade and the top three from the reserve grade last year have to play off for the right to play in the top grade this season.

Those games will take place in May.

Ashburton College A will take on Craighead A in game one today and Rangiora High School’s A side in their second game.

Also on court first thing tomorrow are two other Mid Canterbury sides, Hampstead A and Celtic A, who will square off against each other.

Celtic won the Mid Canterbury premier one competition last season but had a slow start to the inter-centre competition’s opening day, beaten by Christchurch’s Kia Toa, but found their feet to beat Timaru’s Old Boys A.

After Hampstead, Celtic will take on Marist Albion, while Hampstead’s second game of the day will be against Timaru’s Harlequins A – a side which last week featured a couple of familiar Ashburton faces in Kayla Frew and Makayla Cromie.

Kia Toa also had two former Ashburton players in their shooting circle on day one – Sophie Beveridge and Chelsea Corbett – and they’re one of the sides unbeaten so far.

They will take on Rangiora High School and Craighead A tomorrow.

The runners-up in last season’s Mid Canterbury Netball premier grade competition, Methven A, will take on Old Boys A and Rolleston tomorrow, having picked up a draw and a loss on day one.

The remaining premier one games on day two will see another unbeaten side in Selwyn’s Broadfield A take on Harlequins A and Old Boys A.

Mid Canterbury has two teams competing in the premier two grade, and one of them – United A – will be a team on a mission tomorrow as they go hunting for a win.

They will take on Marist Albion, before playing UC A.

UC A picked up two wins on day one, including one over Mid Canterbury’s other premier two side, Southern A.

Tomorrow Southern A will take on Villa Maria, while in other premier two games Technical B will play both UC A and Villa Maria.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 13 April 2019