The 2024 Makos Secondary School Open Water Swimming Championships were recently held in Akaroa. The event was hosted by the Banana Boat NZ Ocean Swim Series, and delivered in conjunction with the La Grande Swim. For those who are not aware, the Makos zone covers the entire South Island; therefore, these championships act as the South Island Secondary School Open Water Championships.

Three Otago students made the trip to Akaroa to compete - Nevaeh Reddy (Wanaka Swim Club & Cromwell College), Keira Hughes (Taieri Swim Club & Taieri College), and Leila Hughes (Taieri Swim Club & Taieri College). 

Nevaeh and Keira, both in the 16-19 Years age group, took on the 5km event. It was an extremely close race for to placing, with the top two swimmers separated by less than half a second. Nevaeh picked up the silver medal, while Keira finished in fourth place just behind the bronze medal winner. 

Leila, in the 12-13 Years age group, placed fifth in the 2km event - a great effort for her first ever secondary school open water championships.

Despite the sunny conditions onshore, it was a particularly challenging swim through the middle of the race, with it becoming quite choppy. So, a big congratulations to these three girls for taking on the challenge and doing their schools proud!

Cromwell College finished 10th place on the school points table, an impressive effort with just the one participant, while Taieri College finished in 16th place with just the two participants.

As the school championships are swum in conjunction with the Banana Boat Ocean Swim Series, students were also eligible to receive medals in the non-schools division. Nevaeh added to her medal tally with a bronze in the 16-19 Years division, while a familiar face took out gold in this division, with Emilia Finer (Neptune Swim Club) taking the win.

A huge thank you to Tanya Reddy for providing supplementary information and photos!

Note: there was a delay in releasing this article due to errors in the initial results released. These were rectified on Tuesday 5 March.

Article added: Wednesday 6 March 2024