School’s Out, Pool’s On: Neo, Oliver and Declan Make Waves at Nationals

By Annika Bokor | Posted: Monday April 28, 2025

While most kids kicked off the school holidays with a well-earned break, Declan Roulston, Oliver Isles and Neo Salomonsson spent their first week grinding it out at the National Age Group Swimming Championships in Hastings.

It is the toughest event on the calendar with over 500 swimmers, and racing taking place in a 50 m long course pool setting, with gruelling morning heats and high-pressure evening finals for the top 10 qualifiers.

Neo Salomonsson: Double National Champion and Otago Record breaker

Neo, having qualified in 12 events, chose to race 6 and made an immediate impact on day 1 in his signature event, the 100m butterfly. He lit up the morning heats with a personal best of 56.51, breaking the Otago Age Group Record of 57.13. But Neo was just getting started. In the finals, the 60 kg rocket launched off the blocks and became the only swimmer to split under 26 seconds at the halfway mark. He didn’t just hold the lead, but extended it, touching the wall in a blazing 55.04 to claim his first national title of the meet and reset his own Otago record. It’s worth noting that this time is only 0.45 seconds off the word-junior championship qualifying times, a very achievable goal for the 2027 world junior championships. He backed his 100 fly up with another national title swim in the 50m fly. With a finals time of 25.04 he produced two more PBs and broke the Otago record twice. Though more of a sprinter, Neo also took on the endurance test of the 200m fly and the 200m individual medley. He delivered strong swims in both, slicing 6 and 8 seconds off his long-course bests to pick up a silver and bronze respectively. In the 200 IM, his final freestyle leg was the fastest in the field, highlighting his impressive closing speed. Neo also qualified for the finals in his other two remaining events, the 50 back and 100 free. He was seeded 4th and 5th respectively into the final but made the decision to withdraw from those races to save his body for the butterfly events.

Oliver Isles: Speed and Consistency

Oliver Isles opened his campaign with a sharp 50m freestyle heat swim of 26.07, punching his ticket to the final where he placed 9th overall. This time marked a 0.14-second PB and showed that cracking the 26-second barrier is well within reach in the near future for his favourite sprint event. He also took on the 100 breast and 100 free events, producing strong personal bests, shaving 0.2 seconds off his breaststroke time and 0.12 seconds off in freestyle. Oliver also swam the 50 breast event, showing the other two boys how fast breaststroke is swum. They say that you can’t chose breaststroke but that breaststroke choses you, and it has certainly chosen Oliver. Although he didn’t quite reach his PB, a time of 34.39 is still very fast for his age.

Declan Roulston: Debuting on the National Stage

For Declan, this was a week of firsts. Having only qualified for the age group nationals a month earlier at the Division II meet, he handled the big stage well. He made the finals in both the 50 and 100m backstroke, finishing 9th and 8th respectively. His 50 back swim was particularly good, where he produced a 0.34 second pb with a finals time of 31.90, dipping under the 32 second barrier for the first time. Competing in Olympic-standard pools in front of a packed crowd was a big step up, but Declan rose to the challenge and gained valuable experience for future competitions. Declan’s first event of the meet was 200 backstroke on day 2 and considering that it was his first ever event at a national stage, he handled himself and the self-marshalling process for the heats very well.

Oliver and Declan show relay grit

Oliver and Declan also competed in the 14&U mixed-gender club relays. In the freestyle relay, Declan led off with time of 27.91, which was almost a 2 second long-course PB, while Oliver threw down a blistering 25.98 anchor leg to power past two other teams. Their team dropped a combined 2.88 seconds and finished 8th overall. Just ten minutes later, the boys were back in the water for the medley relay. Oliver’s 32.98 breaststroke split deserves a special mention while Declan tackled the challenging fly leg with a time of PB time of 31.44.

Individual results:

Neo Salomonsson

GOLD – 50 butterfly, National title holder, Otago Age Group Record x2

GOLD – 100 butterfly, National title holder, Otago Age Group Record x2

SILVER – 200 butterfly

BRONZE – 200 Individual Medley

50 backstroke – withdrew from final but finished with 7th fastest time

100 freestyle - withdrew from final but finished with 6th fastest time

Oliver Isles

9th – 50 freestyle

14th – 50 breaststroke

14th- 100 breaststroke