A 12-strong swimming team to the Trinbago 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games has been announced today by the New Zealand Olympic Committee.
The team is:
Hanna Abdou - Women’s 400m Freestyle (Christchurch, 16)
Leo Arrowsmith - Men’s 200m Breaststroke (Auckland, 16)*Conditionally Selected
Danielle Asiata - Women’s 200m Individual Medley (Auckland, 16)
Amelia Bray - Women’s 100m Butterfly (Auckland, 16)
Caleb Carlisle - Men’s 100m Butterfly (Napier, 17)
Hope Chmiel - Women’s 200m Backstroke (Christchurch, 17)
Jasper Cornish - Men’s 50m Freestyle, Men’s 100m Backstroke (Auckland, 16)
Larn Hamblyn-Ough - Men’s 400m Freestyle, Men’s 1500m Freestyle (Auckland, 17)
Harrison Klouwens - Men’s 50m Freestyle (Auckland, 17)
Pippa Mihaka - Women’s 100m Backstroke (Hamilton, 15)*Conditionally Selected
Charlotte Parmenter - Women’s 50m Freestyle (Christchurch, 15)
Kevin Zhang - Men’s 100m Freestyle, Men’s 200m Freestyle, Men’s 100m Breaststroke, Men’s 200m Individual Medley (Auckland, 16)
The Commonwealth Youth Games provide youth athletes with a multi-sport Games experience and are an important part of a high-performance pathway. The team named today combines a mix of experienced and emerging young athletes, two of which competed internationally at the Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Hawaii last year – Hope Chmiel and Larn Hamblyn-Ough.
NZOC CEO Nicki Nicol extended her congratulations to the team.
“The Commonwealth Youth Games are a wonderful opportunity and I know the team will really benefit from the experience,” she said.
“The multi-sport format gives young athletes a taste of what the Olympic and Commonwealth Games are like, and helps them gain the skills necessary to be able to achieve at the highest levels of competition. These athletes have worked incredibly hard to be selected to the team and I wish them the very best.”
Following their impressive performances at the 2023 New Zealand Age Group Swimming Championships which served as the qualification meet for the Youth Games, the team will be competing against some of the best youth swimmers from around the Commonwealth.
They will be following in the footsteps of former Commonwealth Youth athletes Lewis Clareburt (Gold Coast 2018, Tokyo 2020 and Birmingham 2022) along with Zac Reid (Tokyo 2020) and Mya Rasmussen (Birmingham 2022) who contributed to the 20 medals won by the New Zealand Team at the Bahamas Youth Commonwealth Games in 2017.
Two of the athletes named today have been conditionally selected subject to meeting their conditions before the deadline on 12 June - Leo Arrowsmith and Pippa Mihaka are conditional upon receipt by NZOC from CGF of an additional quota place for the Games.
The Trinbago 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games is set to take place from August 4th-11th in Trinidad and Tobago, with over 1,000 athletes aged between 14 and 18 years old set to compete across seven sports.
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