2026 NEW ZEALAND AGE GROUP SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- April 7th – April 12th
- Hawke’s Bay Regional Aquatic Centre
- LCM (50m)
- Results
The 2026 New Zealand Age Group Swimming Championships wrapped up last week with several top performers making waves in their respective age groups. When all was said and done, multiple new age records were put on the books as the nation’s rising stars took to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Aquatic Centre pool.
Grayson Coulter, 14
- On the opening day of the competition, North Shore’s Grayson Coulter put on a clinic in the 14-year-old boys’ 100m butterfly. The teen first fired off a personal best of 57.12 in the heats before ultimately claiming the gold in 56.09. Coulter opened in 26.51 and closed in 29.58 to produce the second sub-57-second result of his promising young career. Entering this competition, Coulter had been as quick as 56.85 from last December’s Queensland Championships. His performance here, however, established a new national age record, blowing by Cameron Jones‘ old mark of 57.90 notched in 2011.
- Coulter also put up a powerful performance in the 100m freestyle, logging a time of 51.61 for another age group record. His time obliterated the former NZL standard for 14-year-old boys of 52.42, Michael Pickett put on the books in 2017.
- The 200m freestyle event also fell victim to Coulter, who picked up another gold in a swift 1:52.96. That smashed his previous personal best of 1:54.62 from just last month and easily overtook the former NZL age record of 1:55.78 set in 2011 by Michael Mincham. For perspective, Coulter’s sub-1:53 performance would render the teen the 4th-fastest American 13-14-year-old boy in history.
Michael Yang, 14
- Phoenix Aquatics’ Michael Yang re-wrote the record books en route to claiming the title in the 14-year-old boys’ 50m breaststroke. Yang stopped the clock at a mighty 29.73, his first time under the 30-second barrier. That destroyed the former national age record of 30.38, which Cameron Karpik established three years ago.
Te Paki, 15
- Another standout performance came in the form of Te Paki‘s outing in the 15-year-old boys’ 200m backstroke event. Entering this competition, Northwave’s Paki held a lifetime best of 2:06.70 from about a year ago. Flash forward to this competition and he laid waste to that former outing with a monster PB of 2:02.91. Splitting 28.19/31.35 (59.54)/32.19/31.18, Paki broke the NZL age record. That prior record stood at the 2:03.39 Ariel Muchirahondo notched in 2024.
Lucas Bell, 16
- 16-year-old Lucas Bell earned a Junior Pan Pacific Championships-worthy time in the boys’ 100m backstroke, getting it done in a result of 56.49. The Wharenui swimmer split 27.86/28.63 to get to the wall first, eliminating another Muchirahondo NZL age record. That former benchmark stood at the 56.51 Muchirahondo notched last year.
Indie Herbert, 13
- The 13-year-old girls’ 50m butterfly saw Parnell Swimming’s Indie Herbert soar to a new national age record. The teen produced an outing of 28.36 to claim her age category’s national title. That shaved .04 off the previous NZL record of 28.40 held by Milan Glintmeyer since 2022.
April Lin, 13
- April Lin was too quick to catch in the 13-year-old girls’ 200m breaststroke, where the teen fired off a huge mark of 2:38.59. That eliminated the longstanding age record of 2:39.14 Jordyn Mahanga established 23 years ago in 2003.
Neither Coulters 100m or 200m freestyle times mentioned i this article are his pbs.
Coulter went faster in the 100 free in the re-swim. I don’t think swimming NZ explained why it was swum again. I think he swam 51.28 .
Also I wonder why Muchirahondo is swimming in Australia at Age Champs. He’s doing some very fast swims. Maybe he lives in Australia now?
Maybe moved for access to better coaching.
NZ > Aus or vice versa is a very easy move to make.
As far as I can tell he is still with Swim Rotorua and Coach Aidan Withington.
Areil is in australia due to the “wisdom” of swimming nz taking the 17 and 18 y/o age groups out of the nz age group champs which leaves that age bracket only 2 real national meets a year that they can compete in on home soil so they have to look abroad for meets to get that top class competition they need
‘Ariel’ is how to spell it …
There are visitors from Singapore, Switzerland, USA, Samoa, and Cook Islands competing at Aussie age groups,, and it makes sense for older teens from New Zealand, especially the fast ones like Muchirahondo to test themselves against these bigger, faster fields, leaving aside the NAGs policy here.
Coulter went 1:52.1 when he was 13 so it wasn’t a pb
https://swimswam.com/on-fire-13-yr-old-grayson-coulter-posts-15213lcm-200freestyle/