James Pallesen ( Manawatu) toppled the only New Zealand record -

claiming the 17 year old boys 50m butterfly record of 25.51s set by Danyon Loader in 1993, with his winning time of 25.30s in the open event - Dean Kent clocking 26.71s for the silver medal. And in the 50m and 100m men’s freestyle James had two more wins - with times of 24.76s and 54.46s respectively.

Auckland’s resounding win of the Norman Oldershaw Trophy for the 32nd consecutive time , when they scored possibly their highest winning margin of 325 points, to Bay of Plenty’s 76 points, Manawatu’s 58 and Wellington 42, appears to reflect the interest this meeting now attracts from some the country’s leading swimmers.

Helping Auckland to its victory were three Olympians - taking advantage of the meet’s new February slot on the calendar, in their preparation for the major championships within the next few months.

Dean Kent registered the top performance of the meet - in the 400m medley when he clocked 4m 28.46s ( FINA points - 921), as well as wins in the 200m medley and 100m butterfly.

Seventeen year old Monique Robins took four women’s titles - for the 50m and 100m distances of both backstroke and butterfly, and placed second to 1996 Oympian Alison Fitch in the 50m and 100m freestyle.

Alison not only celebrated her 21st birthday during the meeting, but was also swimming under new colours - North Shore’s. Her third gold medal was an impressive win in the 200m freestyle. And she featured in blanket finished for silver medals in the 200m medley and 50m butterfly - which were won respectively by Carissa Thompson and Monique Robins.

It was all new names as North Island titleholders in the junior grade, for 14 years and under. And with only three of these - Jennifer Simmiss (Auckland) Rebecca Annan (Counties) and Hemi Coates (Bay of Plenty) having won NZ titles at last year’s national age group championships - the taste of success acquired by the newcomers augers well for the national meeting next month.

Jennifer Simmiss won the 50m freestyle - 28.34s, 100m freestyle 1m 01.48s and 50m butterfly - 30.84s. Rebecca clocked 9m 19.75s for her win in the 800m freestyle, and Hemi collected the gold medals for the boys 100m butterfly - 1m 05.08s and 200m medley 2m 24.35s.

But the most prolific winner of the meet was 14 year old Shannon Clayton (Manawatu) - winning six titles in the girls events. She made a clean sweep of the three backstroke races, the 200m, 400m freestyle and the 200m medley. And her bag of medals included three silver medals as well - for the 50m, 100m and 800m freestyle.

And with eight medals, versatile Jack Nicol (Auckland) also had a successful meeting - four of his were gold, one silver and three bronze - covering freestyle, backstroke, butterfly and medley events.