Tarquin Magner | Sport

I am a dedicated and motivated athlete and committed to my sport and achieving my short and long term goals. I feel that even at 16 years of age I have made sacrifices for my sport as a lot of other high achieving athletes have done. When I was 12 my Mother and Sister moved to Tauranga from Whakatane to further my swimming opportunities, meanwhile my Father worked and kept our business going in Whakatane to support us. I started off at Whakatane Swim Club and then joined Otumoetai swim club, (now Evolution) to be trained by Coach Mike Lee. Not long after settling in, I started breaking 12 and 13 year NZ records. The move paid off but our family had to live apart. When I was 13, I was offered a swimming and education scholarship by top Australian, one of the best clubs in the world St Peters Western and St Peters Lutheran College. I knew it was going to be hard leaving my family and living in another country, but I knew it was an amazing opportunity and really wanted to give it a go. So in 2018 I went to live in Brisbane and was determined to make the best of the training and coaching I was receiving. I also had the opportunity to swim alongside some of Australia’s best Olympic swimmers and learnt a lot from their experience. Competing in Australia has made me pretty tough and Ive learnt to be resilient, independence, Teams ship, self management and to learn from the lows and enjoy the highs, which doesn’t come at a cheap price. Ive been back in New Zealand since March this year, before Covid lockdown where I adapted to land base training at home, doing weights, running and core exercises, upper body strengthening to maintain a level of fitness and strength until I could get back into the water. As soon as level 2 happened I have been boarding in Tauranga and enrolled back at my old school Tauranga Boys College and training with my NZ Coach and Club, Mike Lee at Evolution. I feel really relieved that here in the BOP we are level 2 and my squad are getting plenty of pool time and training, so that I can keep working towards my goals. I’m looking forward to Surf Life Saving starting up again next month, where I will be training with the Mount Squad again.