Swim Rotorua

03/09/2026

Wishing our 4 swimmers all the best competing at AIMS GAMES SWIMMING over the next 4 days (Saturday-Tuesday). Our club and schools are super proud of your dedication to swimming and congratulate you on qualifying for this competition.

🙌AVA FOKKE Age 11
MT HOBSON ACADEMY/TOKOROA INTERMEDIATE
SCHOOL
7 events
100 IM, 50 Free, 50 Back, 100 Free, 50 Fly, 200 Free, 50 Breast

🙌RUBY COX Age 12
KAHAROA SCHOOL
7 events
100 IM, 50 Free, 100 Breast, 50 Back, 100 Free, 50 Fly, 200 Breast

🙌TAKIRIMU WATTAM Age 12
TE KURA KAUPAPA MĀORI O TE KOUTU
3 events
200 Free, 200 IM, 100 Back

🙌HOLLIE BROWN Age 12
JOHN PAUL COLLEGE
5 events
50 Free, 50 Back, 100 Free, 50 Fly, 100 Back

25/08/2026

Reminder - 'Bring a Friend'
CLUB NIGHT this Thursday 27th

See flyer below for full details.

24/08/2026

13 Swim Rotorua swimmers attended the the BOP Showdown over the weekend held at Baywave.

12 & under
Sam (7 year-old)100% PBs
Gold 100 Breast, Bronze 50 Breast & 100 Free
Hollie (12 year-old) 100% PBs
Dropping -7.04 in the 100 Free
Ava (11 year-old) 100% PBs
Dropping -9.15 in 100 IM & -8.04 in 50 Fly
Chris (10 year-old)
Gold 50 Breast, 50 Free, 100 Free, 50 Fly, 100 Back
Alek (12 year-old)
Alek was our first time racer gaining 2 great PBs in his 50 Back &50 Breast
Mateo (12 year-old)
Bronze 100 Free & 200 IM
Monique (10 year-old)
Had a couple of good swims, just missing out on her PBs

Many of our big swimmers were a bit under the weather but managed to battle on as much as they could.

Esther (13 year-old)
Swam 4 events, qualifying in the finals for 200 Breast, before needing to head home.
Noah (15 year-old)
Gold 50 Back & 50 Free, qualifying in the finals for 4 more events before needing to go home.
Anaru (16 year-old)
Silver 200 Back & 100 Free
Yasin (12 year-old) 100% PBs
Qualifying in the finals for 5/7 events
Symi (14 year-old)
Silver 100 Free & 400 Free, Bronze 100 Fly & 50 Breast
Giselle (14 year-old)
Gold 200 IM & 200 Back, Silver 100 IM & 50 Back, Bronze 200 Free

Thanks to everyone that helped out with time keeping, Isabelle, Emiel, Tony, Veronia, Thinius, Carla & Bianca.

Congratulations & well done everyone!

19/08/2026

Another great heat session at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships.

Olivia has made the A Final of the 400m Freestyle and will also be part of the New Zealand team racing the 4x100m Freestyle Relay tonight.

Unfortunately, Ariel is unwell and is not able to compete at this stage. We’re hoping he feels better soon.

Good luck to Olivia and the New Zealand team tonight.

19/08/2026

Awesome results across the whole NZ. We have Olivia in the 4x200 Freestyle relay tonight

Day two heats in Vancouver done and dusted, with nine New Zealand swimmers booking their tickets to the finals session. Grayson Coulter continued his record-breaking spree at Junior Pan Pacs, lowering the 14 years NZ age record in the 100m freestyle to 51.18 🔥

📲 Catch the finals action live on CBC Sports YouTube channel from 12pm NZST: https://www.youtube.com//streams

DAY TWO FINALS SCHEDULE (subject to change):
Women's 400m individual medley
👉 A final – Ariella Riley (heat: 5:07.81)

Women's 100m freestyle
👉 A final – Alyssa Lawson (heat: 56.93)

Men's 100m freestyle
👉 B final – Grayson Coulter (heat: 51.18 – 14 yrs NZR)

Men's 100m breaststroke
👉 B final – Rylind Wheeler (heat: 1:06.10)

Women's 50m backstroke
👉 B final – Laura Menzies (heat: 29.59), Alyssa Lawson (heat: 30.00), Bridie Quayle (heat: 30.74)

Men's 50m backstroke
👉 A final – Lucas Bell (heat: 25.88); B final – Te P**i (heat: 26.94)

Women's 4x200m freestyle relay
👉 Olivia Emmett, Tandia Fisher, Ariella Riley, Madeleine Wilson

18/08/2026

Amazing results early into the meet. Congratulations Ariel.

Ariel Muchirahondo takes SILVER in Vancouver 🥈

The Rotorua teen clocks a new 17 years NZ age record of 54.63 in the men's 100m backstroke en route to claiming silver at the Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships – taking down Corey Main's record from 2012!

It's New Zealand's first Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships medal since 2018.

Swimming Bay of Plenty Swim Rotorua

18/08/2026

Big well done to our swimmers at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships!

Both Olivia Emmett & Ariel Muchirahondo have made the A Final on Day 1.

Olivia – 200m Freestyle A Final
Ariel – 100m Backstroke A Final, setting a new PB in the heats!

Finals start at 12:00pm NZ time today (5:00pm Vancouver time).

Watch live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cU2ZPEQCy8

Live results:
https://results.swimming.ca/jpp2026/

A great start to the meet. Good luck to Olivia & Ariel in the finals!

17/08/2026

JUNIOR PAN PACS – OLIVIA, ARIEL & COACH AIDAN

The racing gets underway tomorrow at the 2026 Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Vancouver, Canada!

We are incredibly proud to have Olivia Emmett and Ariel Muchirahondo representing New Zealand and Swim Rotorua, with Aidan Withington also part of the New Zealand team as a coach.

A special congratulations also to Ariel, who has been selected as the male captain of the New Zealand team for Junior Pan Pacs.

Here is their programme:

DAY 1 – Monday 17 August
(Tuesday 18 August NZ)

Olivia
• 200m Freestyle

Ariel
• 100m Backstroke

DAY 2 – Tuesday 18 August
(Wednesday 19 August NZ)

Ariel
• 400m IM
• Men’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay*

Olivia
• Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay*

DAY 3 – Wednesday 19 August
(Thursday 20 August NZ)

Olivia
• 400m Freestyle
• Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay*

Ariel
• 200m Backstroke

DAY 4 – Thursday 20 August
(Friday 21 August NZ)

Ariel
• 200m IM

Olivia
• 800m Freestyle

*Relay teams are currently draft teams and can change during the competition.

WATCH LIVE

The racing will be streamed through CBC Sports.

CBC Sports YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/cbcsports

NZ TIMES
Heats – approximately 4:00am
Finals – approximately 12:00pm (midday)

LIVE RESULTS
https://results.swimming.ca/jpp2026/

An exciting four days ahead for Olivia and Ariel as they take on some of the best junior swimmers in the world.

It is a fantastic achievement for Swim Rotorua to have two swimmers and a coach representing New Zealand, along with Ariel taking on the additional honour of male team captain.

Good luck Olivia and Ariel.

LET’S GO NEW ZEALAND!

04/08/2026

Sunday 2nd August was our first Junior event, it was mini golf and relays.

It started out a bit chilly but the sun came out which gave us a great day.

Overall mini golf winner went to Alek, followed by Chris and Dandre in 2nd and Rosie and Colin in 3rd.

Everyone enjoyed themselves, then it was back to the pool for relays.Team names were picked and racing began.

Congratulations to the winning team the Six/Seven -
Hollie, Nixon, Jane, Rukuwai & Austin 👏

03/08/2026

2026 NEW ZEALAND SECONDARY SCHOOLS SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS - COACHES REPORT

Congratulations to our 10 Swim Rotorua swimmers who represented John Paul College, Rotorua Boys’ High School and Tauranga Boys’ College at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Swimming Championships.

Our Results:
41 personal best times
Two age-group titles
Four age-group silver medals

John Paul College

Culainn Stunell produced six personal bests, including a massive 7.43-second improvement in the 400m Freestyle to 4:30.44. He also dropped 3.94 seconds in the 200m Freestyle to 2:07.45 and improved his 100m Backstroke to 1:07.96.

Symi Stewart achieved four personal bests. Her standout improvements included a 2.51-second drop in the 50m Backstroke to 33.83 and a new 100m Freestyle best of 1:03.81. She also improved in the 50m Freestyle and 50m Breaststroke.

Esther Sterkenburg completed a fantastic three-from-three PB performance. She improved to 34.19 in the 50m Freestyle, 42.88 in the 50m Backstroke and dropped an impressive 3.37 seconds in the 50m Breaststroke to 42.12.

Giselle Yee recorded two personal bests, improving her 200m Backstroke to 2:27.22 and her 50m Butterfly to 33.35.

Helena Yee achieved personal bests in both of her events, swimming 32.75 in the 50m Freestyle and 36.36 in the 50m Backstroke.

Rotorua Boys’ High School

Noah Lomas had an exceptional championship, achieving an outstanding seven personal bests from seven events and winning two age-group medals:
Silver — 15-year 50m Backstroke: 26.75
Silver — 15-year 100m Backstroke: 58.72
His biggest improvement came in the 200m Individual Medley, where he dropped 4.88 seconds to 2:15.69. Noah also improved to 24.21 in the 50m Freestyle, 53.46 in the 100m Freestyle, 25.93 in the 50m Butterfly (provisional BOP age record) and 1:01.11 in the 100m Individual Medley.

Leo English collected three age-group medals:
Gold — 16-year 200m Freestyle: 1:51.42
Silver — 16-year 50m Freestyle: 23.63 (provisional BOP age record)
Silver — 16-year 100m Freestyle: 51.54
Leo achieved three personal bests, improving in the 50m and 100m Freestyle and swimming 26.45 in the 50m Butterfly.

Anaru Fitzell delivered an outstanding seven personal bests from eight events. His biggest improvements included 2.95 seconds in the 200m Freestyle to 2:03.64, 1.35 seconds in the 50m Breaststroke to 36.51 and 0.97 seconds in the 50m Butterfly to 33.32. He also improved in the 100m and 400m Freestyle and both Backstroke events.

Tamati Rankin recorded two strong Backstroke personal bests, improving his 50m Backstroke to 30.69 and dropping 1.41 seconds in the 100m Backstroke to 1:07.91. Tamati also had PBs in his 50 fly and 50 Free.

Tauranga Boys’ College

Zack Pask had a strong championship, winning an age-group title and achieving five personal bests:
Gold — 17–19-year 200m Breaststroke: 2:22.84
Zack’s 200m Breaststroke was a huge 6.86-second personal best. He also improved to 1:56.57 in the 200m Freestyle, 4:07.23 in the 400m Freestyle, 30.77 in the 50m Breaststroke and 1:05.47 in the 100m Breaststroke.

A fantastic championship filled with personal bests, medals and valuable national racing experience. Congratulations to all our swimmers on the way you represented your schools and Swim Rotorua.

John Paul College Rotorua - JPC
Rotorua Boys' High School
Tauranga Boys' College