Ariel Muchirahondo Makes Waves At NZ Age Group Championships

This was written in conjunction with Stella Weston, a former teammate of Muchirahondo’s at Swim Rotorua.

Competing at the Apollo Projects New Zealand Age Group Swimming Championships from 13-17 April, Ariel Muchirahondo had one of the finest performances in New Zealand age group swimming history. The 16-year-old from Rotorua, New Zealand, broke three New Zealand Age Group records and qualified across four disciplines for the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships that will be held in Romania this August.

He was the only New Zealander to meet the qualifying time standards at the meet, and hit those in five events: the 400 IM, 400 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 200 butterfly, and 200 IM.

That slate of events reads something like a Leon Marchand dual meet schedule, and Muchirahondo was only six-tenths off adding another in the 200 freestyle. He swam best times in all seven of the events he entered (the other being the 100 fly), with the pick of the bunch being the 400 IM.

He sliced 5.52 seconds off his entry time in that event, going from a 4:27.51 to 4:21.99 and taking almost two seconds of Luan Grobbelaar’s age group record from 2018. The South African-born swimmer would lose a second medley record just three days later as Muchirahondo clipped the 200 IM mark in a time of 2:04.08.

Grobbelaar, who represented New Zealand at the Fukuoka World Championships in 2023, retired from the sport in January this year.

He wasn’t the only senior Aquablack to have a record toppled: Double Olympic Champion from the Atlanta ’96 Olympics, Danyon Loader, had his 33-year-old record smashed in the 200 fly, as the 16-year-old nearly dipping under the 2-minute barrier with a time of 2:00.02 to demolish Loader’s 2:01.33 standard.

Loader would go on to win Olympic silver in Barcelona just four months after setting that record, with his time of 1:57.93 from the semi-final still standing as the 17-year-old New Zealand Record. Muchirahondo said that it meant a lot to him that he can ‘get up there and swim faster than some of the greatest swimmers in New Zealand history.’

Photo: Simon Watts/www.bwmedia.co.nz @bwmedianz & Swimming New Zealand

For his swim in the 400m IM, he was presented with a joint Life Members Trophy for the most outstanding performance at the 2025 Apollo Projects New Zealand Age Group Swimming Championships.

It was a race he had targeted, and the one he was most nervous for coming into the competition but put together a near-perfect race; one he described as the favourite of his career. Breaking the Age Group record and qualifying for World Juniors served only to sweeten the sensation.

He ended up coming home from Hawkes Bay with six gold medals and one silver, and his attitude towards that one silver showcases a maturity that will surely serve him well –  ‘A PB is a PB, I swam the fastest time in my life at the end of the day. Who could be unhappy with that?’

The Journey

Muchirahondo has swum since he was a toddler, a necessary skill in Rotorua, whose name translates to ‘Second Lake’. He began swimming competitively at eight years old, and describes himself as ‘quite competitive, which helps with racing’. Reflecting on that journey after his recent success he said that it was ‘surreal seeing that all the hard work and hours I had put into the pool were actually showing at the moments where I was most anxious.’

That is the aspect of swimming that Muchirahondo appreciates the most; seeing the tens of hours of work and thousands of lengths in the pool come to fruition. His drive is evident, and success begets success; it ‘makes me want to keep working.’.

His coach, Aidan Withington, has been instrumental in his journey. The 16-year-old said that he has been ‘giving me the tools to keep on improving and being able to compete at higher and higher levels.’

He is very much a swimmer moulded by Withington’s coaching, excelling in three of the four strokes with the other (breaststroke) coming along in leaps and bounds this season – his breaststroke split in the 400 IM has tumbled from a 1:23.9 just last year to a 1:15.6. Withington’s philosophy is to develop all four strokes, as well as a strong aerobic base, and then build individual tenets for each swimmer on top.

Ariel Muchirahondo and coach Aidan Withington, after he broke the 200 IM NAG Record in the final session of the Swimming New Zealand Apollo Projects National Age Group Swimming Championships. Photo: Simon Watts/www.bwmedia.co.nz @bwmedianz & Swimming New Zealand

Last year Muchirahondo represented New Zealand at the 2024 Hancock Prospecting Queensland Championships in Australia – considered one of the toughest age group swimming championships in the world. That was his first taste of competition outside of New Zealand, although this summer’s World Aquatics Juniors will be in Romania; a far longer journey.

He will be well prepared for those, however. Withington stated that Muchirahondo reached a ‘new level’ at the competition last week, and that ‘this was an outstanding event for Ariel… some world-class swims. Everything we were targeting and had planned fell into place perfectly.’

Speaking about the club that he has been head coach of since January 2020, he added that ‘it is great that a provincial club in a town the size of Rotorua (78,000) has been able to produce a swimmer like Ariel. It does show that it can be achieved anywhere.’  

Muchirahondo broke his first New Zealand Age Group records in 2022, in the 200 backstroke and 200 IM, and was selected for the National Age Group program in 2023. He wasn’t alone at the national level that year, with Rotorua sending six other swimmers to the national championship and finishing ranked 17th overall. They have only looked upwards since then, finishing 15th and 10th in the last two years and ranking as the top non-university affiliated club in 2025.

Withington stresses the importance of this. In his own words; ‘it’s also important to have the team around him. Our club, Swim Rotorua, is a small, close-knit club of mainly school-aged athletes, and Ariel is lucky to have another top performing age group athlete in the squad – Leo English has also represented New Zealand at an age group level. He won four gold medals and a bronze at the championships, (and) is a great training partner for Ariel – they both lift each other’s performances.’

English, who is currently in the 15-year-old age group, is primarily a freestyler and finished second overall behind his teammate in the 200 and 400 free. He also won the 800 in 8:39 and 1500 in 16:18, showing off some impressive range.

Photo: Simon Watts/www.bwmedia.co.nz @bwmedianz & Swimming New Zealand

Withington, who moved to Rotorua from Wellington in 2019, noted that ‘this journey that we are on is helped a lot by the wider coaching community in New Zealand. Being just a small country, we all need to work with each other and drive off each other’s knowledge. No one can achieve success without support.’

Muchirahondo trains eight times a week for two hours, usually swimming 5-7 km, along with gym work, running and biking. He is very much a swimmer moulded by Withington’s coaching, excelling in three of the four strokes with the other (breaststroke) coming along in leaps and bounds this season (the breaststroke leg in his 400 IM has dropped from a 1:23 to 1:15 this year). He doesn’t have a favourite set and refuses to make excuses, commenting that he ‘just tries to do every set how they’re meant to be done.’

His head coach observed that as well as being incredibly talented, he is immensely dedicated and that ‘he loves the sport, goes beyond what is asked of him, and takes ownership of what he does. Talent is not a limited resource, it’s what that athlete does with that talent that matters… Ariel won’t just do what is asked of him – he’ll go the extra mile’

Withington sees the standard-raising effect of having Ariel in the club, and the young star’s successes and dedication ‘gives the younger swimmers in the club something to look up to and allows them to dream. And when you have a dream, you owe it to yourself to do whatever you can to achieve it.’

He had been a record-breaking swimmer almost since the beginning of his career, winning the Bay Of Plenty’s John Hare Records trophy in 2019 at age 10 for the most age group records set in the previous season – with 32.

He has won that trophy in all but one year since, and has added multiple National Records since then, currently holding 14 across the 13-, 14-, 15- and 16-year-old age groups.

Muchirahondo after winning the 400 freestyle, where he broke four minutes for the first time and hit the qualifying mark for World Juniors this summer. He won the event by nearly ten seconds. Photo: Simon Watts/www.bwmedia.co.nz @bwmedianz & Swimming New Zealand

Muchirahondo’s aspiration is to represent New Zealand at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, and prior to that at either the Commonwealth Games or Junior Youth Olympics in 2026. He has not yet decided his next steps after graduating high school, but sees the benefits of joining the NCAA, saying it ‘would definitely be something to consider…to further my swimming’.

However, as Withington pointed out; ‘you need to know what’s ahead, but sometimes you need to just look down at your feet.’

Muchirahondo is doing just that. Up next and his current priority is the World Aquatics Juniors in Romania, which he sees as ‘a massive stepping stone towards my international goals’.

He hopes to make a final there, but the aim is personal bests and the execution of his own race plan – he is aware that he will be on the younger end, racing against some of the best 18-year-olds in the world, although excited for the opportunity. Preparation for his first major international event is ongoing, and not just in the pool – he’s said that he might have to start learning some Romanian.