New Zealand Short Course Swimming Championships
By Annika Bokor | Posted: Sunday September 1, 2024
Neo Salomonsson claims triple national age-group titles, sets new Otago records and Taka Sugiyama continues to impress in the long-distance events.
Neo (15) and Taka (16) recently spent a week at the New Zealand Short Course Championships in Auckland, from August 20th to 24th. They’re both a joy to watch as their swimming strengths differ significantly: Neo excels in the power strokes as a sprinter, while Taka shines in long(er)-distance events and the technically challenging breaststroke. Although their combined 15 races make it difficult to cover every detail, both swimmers delivered standout performances that deserve recognition. The swimmers competed in their age-groups each morning, with the top 30 from all age-groups getting the opportunity to race again in the open evening (A, B and C) finals.
Although Neo prefers 50 and 100m distances, he added the 200m event of his strength stroke: butterfly. He had great success in all three butterfly events, claiming gold and being crowned the NZ age-group title holder for 50 and 100 m butterfly, while he placed second and was awarded silver in the 200 butterfly event. He produced particularly impressive personal best times in these butterfly races, breaking and lowering his own current Otago age-group records. His time of 56.14 in 100m butterfly was exceptionally exciting as it was only 0.26 seconds off the NZ age-group record. In addition to his butterfly success, Neo captured an age-group gold medal in the 100m freestyle. He managed to time every single detail perfectly in his race and touched the wall first from his outer lane. His time of 51.92 seconds not only secured another top spot on the podium but also shattered a nine-year-old Otago age-group record with over a second, while smashing his own personal best time with just over 1.5 seconds. It’s worth noting that the times for three of his four Otago records were faster than the current Otago record times for 16 year olds. Although Neo qualified for two B and one C open evening finals, he chose to do only one and rest his body for his individual events.
Taka continued his upward trajectory with another successful meet, putting on display his ability to swim faster and longer than he might have imagined. In my opinion, one of his standout performances came in the 400 freestyle. This is because just a month ago, Taka achieved a significant personal best, shaving 15 seconds off his time and dipping into the 4 minute 15 seconds range. In the morning heats, he matched that feat with a time of 4:15.45, securing a spot in the evening’s open C final. There, he proved his consistency, clocking in at 4:15.19, proving that he can maintain good results even after many and longs swims. But it was the 100m breaststroke where Taka truly shone. Once a distant goal, breaking into the 1 minute 10 seconds has been Taka’s focus, a goal he achieved less than a month ago. On day four of the meet, he smashed his personal best and with a time of 1:09.62, he shaved off 0.52-second from his entry time. That’s a significant amount over only 100m of the slowest stroke. His best race was however 400 IM, a longer distance which also includes a 100m breaststroke leg. In the age-group morning race he produced a small personal best time which earned him a spot in another evening C final. There he took the opportunity to demonstrate all his strengths in one race, taking off almost 3 seconds of his entry time.
New Zealand Age-Group placings:
Neo Salomonsson
· GOLD – NZ age-group title holder – 50 butterfly
· GOLD – NZ age-group title holder – 100 butterfly
· GOLD – NZ age-group title holder – 100 freestyle
· SILVER – 200 butterfly
· 4th – 50 backstroke
· 6th – 100 Individual Medley
· 7th – 50 freestyle
· 8th – 100 backstroke
Taka Sugiyama
· 6th - 400 Individual Medley
· 7th – 400 freestyle
· 10th – 100 breaststroke
· 12th – 200 breaststroke
· 13th – 50 breaststroke
· 13th – 100 Individual Medley
· 15th – 200 Individual Medley
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