Following the cancellation of both the 2020 and 2022 competitions due to pandemic travel restrictions, the thirteenth edition of the Oceania Championships got underway last week as part of a month-long festival of swimming at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre that included the Australian Age Championships, Australian Multi-Class Championships, Australian Open Championships, and the recently completed Oceania Championships.

World Aquatics President Husain Al-Musallam and Second Vice President Matthew Dunn officially opened the championships on the first of four days of racing, and it was the Australian team of emerging teenage talent that blitzed the championships winning 39 gold, 8 silver and 7 bronze medals to finish as clear leaders at the top of the medal tally.

Australian teenage distance specialist Amelie Smith was the standout swimmer for the ‘green & gold’ with her four individual gold medals narrowly outshining the performances of teammates Jessica Cole, Olympia Pope, and Jessica Wilson who all won three individual titles apiece. The Rocky City swimmer who trains under coach Shane Kingston claimed the quadrella of freestyle events wining the 200m, 400m, 800m & 1500m Freestyle. Having won the Australian Age Title in the 1500m Freestyle just two weeks earlier Smith’s superb April was rewarded with a start on the Australian Team for the Junior Pan Pacs later this year.

The Australian men were led by 16-year-old Lucas Fackerell who like teammate Smith dominated the distance freestyle events. The Western Australian swimmer who trains at the Breakers Club under coach Harry Clark took out the Oceanian Titles in the 400m, 800m & 1500m Freestyle. An open water swimmer that also dominates his age-group in the pool, Fackerall has been named on both the Australian pool team for the Junior Pan Pacs and the Australian open water team for the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming Junior World Championships in Italy this September.

New Zealand’s team of seven swimmers finished second on the medal tally with 6 gold, 10 silver and 3 bronze medals with Chris Elson leading the charge with three individual titles. The 25-year-old swimmer from the Vikings Club in Christchurch completed the 50m-100m Butterfly double, with his third gold coming in his less fancied event the 100m Freestyle.

Having qualified third for the freestyle final and looking out of the race when turning in fourth, Elson powered home over the last twenty-five metres to dead-heat for gold with Australia’s Charlie Russell. Remarkably it was the second dead-heat for gold in as many events on night two of competition at the Championships with Australia’s Lillie McPherson and Sylvia Czajko sharing the Oceanian Title in the Women’s 100m Freestyle just ten minutes earlier.

Jack Hendy was the other multiple gold medallist for New Zealand taking the honours in the 50m Freestyle and 50m Backstroke. Based out of the NUSwim Club in Newcastle but competing under leading Auckland outfit Club 37 headed up by breakout Kiwi coach Mitch Nairn, the 23-year-old’s two Oceanian titles ensured an Australian lock-out in the male sprint events following American Samoa’s Micah Masei’s win in the Men’s 50m Breaststroke.

For Olympian Masei it was a historic moment for his homeland as he claimed American Samoa’s first Oceanian Title in this the thirteenth edition of the championships. The 25-year-old who grew up in Oregon (USA) before completing college at the University of Hawai’i was just outside his career-best from Gwangju 2019, which was the first of his three career appearances at a World Aquatics Championships having also represented American Samoa at Fukuoka 2023 and Doha 2024.

In total twelve federations returned home with medals from thirteenth staging of the Oceania Championships. Behind the gold medal winning nations of Australia, New Zealand and American Samoa, minor medals were won by Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The Solomon Islands and Vanuatu didn’t manage to win a medal across the four days of racing, while the Marshall Islands were the sole Oceanian Federation not contesting the 2024 championships.

Oceania Championships 2024 – Medal Table