KA MATE! KA MATE!

• 06:00 - Bbreakfast roll call and all are present and accounted for
• 06:15 - Advance scouting group head to pool to secure seat
• 06:30 - Main team leaves free spirit
• 07:00 - KWA Join 297 swimmers in 6 lanes (+2 for AWD)
• 08:15 - Racing starts promptly at 8:00

...and then the cascade begins wave after wave of PB’s from our team, Boys, Girls, IM, Free, Back Breast and Fly it didn’t matter we were quite simply on fire. Average PB in boys 200IM - 8 SECONDS!!!

It was a great morning you can check out the actual results on the Arafura website as I don’t have them at the moment.

A special shout out to our 12 year olds Eve, Kristie, Kate, Sam and Autahi who all swum with great determination and application.

The meet runs about 2 hours over in the morning so we have staggered groups heading back to the Freespirit. I join the last group and after a 20 minute turn around head back to the pool with our swimmers who would not be swimming in finals (yet). We had a meeting at the pool with some lizards under a tree and then they moved off to complete their afternoon loosen up.

The finalists arrived not long after and we reviewed their plans for the afternoon. The pool is cleared, the officials are on deck, and standing proudly on the end of the Causarina Pool are the KWA boys stripped to the waist. They wait as the crowd quiets and all around the pool people are rushing for their cameras, they know what’s about to come.

Autahi’s voice sounds out clear and strong - A warriors call, THE HAKA! and the Kiwi boys respond with a resounding unified voice and the challenge is issued. The crowd cheers and respond with a feeble ”aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi“ but the moment belongs to the KWA boys.

The meet is a true international event with flags being hoisted for the medal winners and National anthem’s of the champion. With monotonous regularity “Advance Australia Fair” rings out until Cameron Blair steps up in the 200IM for 13 & 14 year old boys.

Still only 13 years old he is top qualifier by over 10 seconds going into the final but coach has warned him to expect some fireworks from the New Caledonia swimmer Damon Theveny in lane 5 and sure enough Cameron is ½ a body length down at the touch after the fly but a superb underwater backstroke breakout puts him ½ body length in front after flags.

Cameron has a great backstroke length and leads by a body length going into the breaststroke leg which was his weakest in the morning.

In the early part of this 50 the Theveny is gaining but Cameron pulls away again in the last 15 meters to lead by 2 body lengths going into the last turn from where he is too strong for both Theveny and Davison from North Shore Swimming.

BLAIR WINS!. He breaks the Manawatu Age Group record, the Northern Territory All Comers Record for 13 year olds and takes 3 seconds of his PB. NZ first, New Caledonia 2nd and NZ third and not an Aussie on the dais.

The very next race saw Muriel and Claudia step up in the Final of the Hundred Freestyle, both had swum PB’s in the heats an after a blistering start Claudia came away with a Silver medal and Muriel came in 6th.

Alex stepped up in the final of the 100 Freestyle after breaking the minute in for the first time in the morning he backed up well moving from 8th to 6th and shaving another ½ second off his time.

Sam and Autahi were both in the final of the 50 back and Autahi had a blinding swim to take a bronze medal from lane 6, Sam was 6th.

In a once every three years event Claudia stepped up in the 50 backstroke and picked up another medal this time a bronze. More importantly she set a faster time than brother Alex had done in his heat so the pressure was on.

The 15&16 year boys 50 back had three Kiwi swimmers James in 6 Alex in 7 and Kurt in 8 and after a stunning start the planets lined up and Kurt walked away with a Silver medal from lane 8!!!! With A 3 second PB, James got 5th only splits off his best and Alex snuck in 0:00.12 (or so) ahead of sister Claudia

Cameron was in the 50 free final and he broke into the 27‘s for the first time finishing 5th.

Kristy Price had a gutsy swim in the 100 fly final after an 8 second pb in the morning and finished 5th.


Claudia and Muriel stepped up again in the 100 fly and Claudia scored a third medal for the day this time a bronze with Muriel a gallant 6th

Ending the finals as he began them Cameron won the 100 breaststroke gold medal with an outstanding 5 second PB on where he started the day.

7 MEDALS, 2 Golds, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze medals on the first day.!

On the way back to the accommodation Muriel was remarking on the pretty sunset, only to discover that she was in fact looking at the moon on the rise!!! Nice

The links between North Shore and KWA grow stronger by the day with the boys Haka and Josh Freemans boyish good looks well enough said ......


Team Meeting at 8:30pm, lights out at 9:00pm. Managers meeting at 9:00, newsletter until 10:00 so I’m beat..

Tomorrow we race....BETTER!!!!

Andrew (International coach of mystery)