Wellington 2025 Short Course Champs: Review

What an amazing weekend it was at the 2025 Swimming Wellington Short Course Championships held at Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre. We had over 260 swimmers from 24 clubs competing at our first short course champs for the season. We witnessed hundreds of amazing swims, multiple records crushed, many PBs gained and a whole lot of fun was had by all. 

It was great to see so many from outside the wellington region make the trip up or down the country to compete at our championships. We were delighted to welcome them to the Capital and it was a joy to watch them race. 

The weekend saw 7 swimmers making their mark on the competition leaderboard, with a combination of Wellington and New Zealand records broken. 

Otaki Titans’ Noah Ireland-Spicer was flying in the in 50 Freestyle, hitting the wall in 22.82 to set a new Wellington record in the 18-year-old age group. Not long after, Georgina Bell from Pirates produced a brilliant swim in the 100 Backstroke, claiming the Wellington Open record with a sharp 1:01:87. 

PCA’s Nathaniel Wood made waves on his own, setting a New Zealand record in the SM10 400 Individual Medley with a time of 6:31.59 – a huge achievement and stand out swim. 

The Taraika team had a phenomenal showing – Luojingxi Chen broke the Wellington record in the 15-year-old 50 Backstroke with a time of 26.29, Isabelle Hunt added her name to the record books once again, swimming 29.33, in the 16-year-old 50 Backstroke. 

Dannevirke’s Jonty Howland had a performance to remember, setting a New Zealand record in the S6 200 Butterfly, finishing in an impressive 4:15.11. And to cap off the weekend of records, Charlie Dickison, also from Taraika, had an excellent 200 Freestyle, setting a new Wellington record with a time of 1:54.87. 

A massive congratulations to every single swimmer who participated in these championships. You guys showed determination all throughout and we loved every bit of it. Congratulations to all the coaches who coached the swimmers going into these champs and I am sure you are all proud of your swimmers. 

The end of the championships we awarded two awards. The Mana Swimco Cup went to the club with the most points across the championships, including the 800 & 1500 Championships. In third place was Porirua City Aquatics with 1709 points, second place was Pirates Swim Team with 1836.5 points and this year’s winner was Tawa Swimming Club with 1932 points. Amazing Mahi! 

The last award was the Tawa Trophy. This is given to a team of more than 4 swimmers that achieves the best average individual event points over the competition. This year’s winners were, for the second year in a row, Raumati (Raptors) Swimming Club, with an average of 54 points per swimmer competing at the Short Course and Distance Championships. 

We would also like to give a massive thank you to our volunteers who have taken time out of their weekend to support our competition and give a hand, we couldn’t run this event without you. To all our Technical Officials, runners, AOD Staff, recorders and Timekeepers; a massive thanks to you all on making Short Course this year possible.  

A thank you also to the sponsors for these championships: NZ Community Trust, Wellington City Council, Pub Charity and Eastern Suburbs. 

In summary we can confirm that the 2025 Swimming Wellington Short Course Championships was a success. Every session was always ahead of our estimated finishing time and there were no technical difficulties that had to stop the session from continuing. 

Until next year.