Competition Wrap - 2025 Apollo Projects Junior Festivals
Over the first weekend of March, we were proud to hold the 2025 Apollo Projects Junior Festivals across 4 zones – Makos (held in Dunedin), Harlequins (held in Auckland), Aquaknights (held in Rotorua) and All Stars (held in Kapiti Coast). There were 1,122 swimmers aged 12 years or under who entered and made every stroke count as they got involved in the festivities in and out of the pool.
As always, there was a great atmosphere at the festivals, with one of the highlights of the weekend being clubs dressing up as Movie Characters in the final session with some outstanding outfits on display. The music got everyone dancing throughout the weekend, and we had some crowd engagement as the Mexican wave made its way around the pool multiple times.
It was great to have some of our Aquablacks and international representatives along to support the kids, with a Dive Start Clinic being held at each of the festivals. These were incredibly well received by the participants and their families who came along, with the clinic consisting of a pool session including watching a top swimmer in action before a Q&A, posing for photos and signing some autographs. Thanks to everyone who took part, with a special thanks to each of the following Aquablacks and international representatives who gave their time to host the clinics:
Tracy Breuer (Kiwi West Aquatics)
Caitlin Deans (Neptune)
Chelsey Edwards (North Shore)
Erika Fairweather (North Shore)
Alison Fitch (Hamilton Aquatics)
Kane Follows (Neptune)
Cameron Gray (Coast)
Gina McCarthy (Hamilton Aquatics)
Esme Paterson (Neptune)
Carter Swift (Club 37)
Personal Bests
Once again, the festivals provided a fun racing environment to celebrate the end of summer and had a strong focus on celebrating personal best swims. There were strong swims across the board, with nearly two-thirds of swims (65.20%) resulting in a personal best - a large increase on the personal bests from the previous edition in late 2023! That's a total of 4,399 personal bests achieved across the weekend of swimming - congratulations to every swimmer. The kids received PB ribbons for the third year in a row, after their popularity from the previous years.
The results of the PB calculations for each club have been completed, comparing the number of entries with the number of PB’s achieved, and we are excited to announce the winners for each zonal category. These results are calculated on all individual swims, excluding the freestyle kick event.
All Stars
1 to 50 entries = Raumati Swimming Club (72.73% PBs)
51 to 100 entries = Capital Swim Club (78.89% PBs)
101 to 200 entries = Whanganui Swimming Club (75.21% PBs)
Aquaknights
1 to 50 entries = Whakatane Swimming Club (88.89% PBs)
51 to 100 entries = Stratford Flyers Swimming Club (75% PBs)
101 to 200 entries = Swim Rotorua (67.83% PBs)
201+ entries = Liz van Welie Aquatics (71.43% PBs)
Harlequins
1 to 50 entries = Kowhai Swim Club (100% PBs)
51 to 100 entries = Club 37 (73.91% PBs)
101 to 200 entries = United Swimming Club (54.73% PBs)
201+ entries = Coast Swimming Club (64.38% PBs)
Makos
1 to 50 entries = Greymouth Swim Club (100% PBs)
51 to 100 entries = Tasman Swim Club (82.5% PBs)
101 to 200 entries = Neptune Swim Club (74.8% PBs)
For the national categories, the winners are:
National
1 to 50 entries = Greymouth Swim Club (100% PBs)
51 to 100 entries = Tasman Swim Club (82.5% PBs)
101 to 200 entries = Whanganui Swimming Club (75.21% PBs)
201+ entries = Liz van Welie Aquatics (71.43% PBs)
Congratulations to each of the swimmers and coaches for each of the zonal and national category winners who achieved many personal bests across the festivals.
Results
Please see the respective final results for each of the festivals below for your reference
Congratulations to all the kids who took part in the 2025 Apollo Projects Junior Festivals, and thanks to those who helped deliver the festivals.
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