Annika Bokor, 3 September 2026
Three Swimmers, Big Performances, One Great Meet
The South Island Swimming Championships were held in Dunedin from 28–30 August, bringing together around 250 swimmers from across the South Island.
Three of our swimmers, Declan Roulston, Fletcher McCall and Neo Salomonsson, took on the challenge, with 15 year olds Declan and Fletcher competing in the 15–16 age group and Neo in the 17+ age group.
Declan Roulston continues to work hard towards returning to his previous form following a string of unfortunate concussions that have interrupted his training. Taking a more measured approach at this meet, Declan entered three shorter events, including the 50 and 100 m backstroke and 50 m butterfly. It was particularly encouraging to see him swim 29.48 in the 50 m butterfly, just 0.04 seconds outside his personal best and maintaining his impressive consistency below the 30-second mark. His standout swim came in the 50 m backstroke, where he took an impressive 0.35 seconds off his personal best, recording 30.12 and moving tantalisingly close to the 30-second barrier. Declan narrowly missed out on a medal in the 50 m backstroke, finishing a very respectable 4th. Declan also demonstrated great self-management over the three intense days.
Fletcher McCall continued to build on his freestyle events, with his pool training complementing his longer open-water swimming. He took on the 100, 200, 400 and 800 m freestyle and enjoyed an excellent meet, recording personal bests in three of his four events. His best placing came in the 800 m freestyle, where he finished 4th with a two-second PB. Even more impressive were his improvements in the 400 and 100 m freestyle, where he took almost eight seconds off his 400 m PB and nearly three seconds off his 100 m PB. At the rate Fletcher is improving his freestyle, it won’t be long before his new 400 m freestyle time of 4:36.71 dips below the 4 min 30 sec mark. His new 100 m freestyle time of 1:01.29 also puts him very close to breaking the magical one-minute barrier.
Neo Salomonsson had a strong meet following his return from Canada and, with his hand recovered, was ready to take on the taller and older swimmers in the 17+ age group. He stuck with his specialist stroke, butterfly, while also adding the 100 m freestyle and individual medley to his programme. His 100 m freestyle produced a small PB of 51.49, earning him 3rd place. Although seeded second for the 100 m individual medley final, Neo chose to withdraw to allow his body to recover. That decision paid off spectacularly in the butterfly, where Neo produced hat-tricks galore. In the 50, 100 and 200 m butterfly, he won gold in his age group (age-group champion), set personal bests, was the fastest swimmer across all age groups (South Island champion) and broke the South Island records. His 50 m butterfly was particularly impressive. His time of 24.40 not only re-broke his own 17-year-old age-group record but also took 0.07 seconds off the Open (19+) record.
Following his strong performances, Neo has also recently been invited to attend a preparation meeting for the Emerging Aquablacks, looking ahead to the next two Olympic cycles – Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032. This is a recognition of his continued progress and places him among the swimmers being considered for New Zealand’s future high-performance pathway.
Congratulations to all three swimmers on an excellent South Island Championships!
