NZ Surf-Lifesaving Pool Nationals

Charlotte and Madi recently achieved some great results at this event and had some fun in the process. Read on to find out more about their adventure!

On the 6th October we flew up to Auckland for Surf life saving pool nationals. Once we arrived in Auckland we had to drive for 1 hour to get to our hotel, then we arrived and we got settled into our hotel and had a look around in the park. 

The next day it was time to start competing so we had to start the day by getting up at 5:30am and we headed to the pool by 6:15am to give us time to be at the pool for warm up at 7am. We counted down until the clock ticked over to 7 where everyone dived in to start warm up. Then it was time for racing!!! Our first race up was the 50 freestyle with fins where Charlotte placed 8th in the under 14 age group and Madi placed 7th in the under 13 age group. Our next event was the brick relay and that was our best event of the day because we ended up getting 1st place and braking the New Zealand record by 3 seconds that had been made in 2014. Then we had our last event of the day and it was the rescue medley where you have to go underwater 17.5 meters then you have to pick up a 5kg brick and swim to the rest of the 50 with it.

After our day of competing was finished we went to the hotel and rested up for the next day of competing. The next morning was the same with an early start and early warm up where the countdown was the same. We had a quick warm up and got straight into racing with one of our biggest races of the competition, it was the medley relay and we placed second and only being 2 seconds off the record. Our next race was the brick carry with no fins. Then we had our 100 meter swim with obstacles. That is where you have to swim 100 meters but there is gates that you have to dive under it and come back up and swim the the next gate then you have to swim back to where you dived in. After we went back to the hotel we got back into our togs and headed out to Mairangi bay beach for another swim, then we found a pier and kept jumping off it until we had to go back. Then we went back to the hotel to have a shower and get ready to go out for dinner at La Porchetta.

It was the last day of competing and we had obstacle relay where we also placed second in New Zealand then it was time for our tube rescue where we got 6th and there was only 2 seconds in between first and sixth tube rescue is where I have to swim down to the other side of the pool with my tube and fins and have to clip Madi into the tube and swim back with her kicking.

Then racing came to an end and we walked away with 3 nationals medals each. St Clair Surf Lifesaving Club also finished fourth overall with only 13 swimmers. After it had finished we had to jump into the van and head off the the Airport to catch our flight back to Dunedin.