Strickland has Olympic hopes

From swimming at Avarua harbour to Olympic pools, it’s clear 14-year-old Temaruata Strickland is excited to take the plunge and represent the Cook Islands.

From swimming at Avarua harbour to Olympic pools, it’s clear 14-year-old Temaruata Strickland is excited to take the plunge and represent the Cook Islands.

Strickland has been selected for the Cook Islands Youth Olympic team preparing to represent the country at the games in Nanjing, China, from August 16 to 28.

Strickland was back on the island to attend the funeral of his grandfather Kura Strickland and returns to his New Zealand home in Tauranga to continue training for upcoming swim meets.

As an eight-year-old, Strickland was enrolled into a ‘learn to swim’ programme and since then has taken it up as a sport.

Strickland says he specialises in freestyle and backstroke, however, at the 2013 New Zealand division two age group meet – Strickland competed in eight events and made the finals for all events winning three silver medals and one bronze.

He says he missed out on a gold medal by .01 of a second.

On being selected to represent the Cook Islands at the Nanjing Youth Olympics, Strickland says he excited at the news.

“I was pretty excited and pumped!” says Strickland.

The Otumoetai College student swims with the local club with the same name in Tauranga and has sevens sessions a week in the pool as part of his training programme.

Before the Nanjing Youth Olympics, Strickland will wear the green and gold national colours in the pool when he represents the country at the Oceania Championships in Auckland which will be followed by the 2014 New Zealand age group swimming competition.

Both events are being seen as fantastic opportunities for Strickland to switch into competition mode ahead of the Youth Olympics.

Winning a medal at the Youth Olympics will be a bonus for Strickland.

“My goal is to get in to the finals of all my races and maybe win a medal – that would be bonus!”

Cook Islands Aquatic Federation president Romani Katoa is thrilled to have another home-grown Cook Islands swimmer prepare for national representation.

“We are really excited to see a born and raised Cook Islander, who is now training in New Zealand, represent the country in the pool,” says Katoa.

The humble teenager returns to New Zealand today and will head straight to the pools and get back into training.