School News

HBHS Year 12 student Jesse Reynolds (pictured in action, right) has recently returned from the 2013 IPC World Swimming Championships, held in Montreal, Canada.  He swam in three events and achieved a ranking of 6th in the world as an S9 swimmer in the 400 metres freestyle event.  What makes this even more impressive is that as a 16 year old he was competing against athletes who were much bigger and more experienced than he is, as some of his competitors were 24 - 26 years old.  Congratulations to Jesse on this fantastic achievement, and we look forward to following his progress.

NZ Paralympic champion and HBHS student Jesse Reynolds recently completed a very cold, gutsy five kilometre race in the Lake Taupo State Epic Swim.  He placed 7th in the 13 - 15 age group with a time of one hour and sixteen minutes.  Thirty percent of his peers pulled out as the race progressed, so it is proof of Jesse's mettle as a long distance swimmer that he completed his first open water race with such aplomb.  Jesse spent a week training in Taupo prior to the race, and was met by the Aqua Blacks - New Zealand's Olympic Swimming Team - many of whom have been following Jesse's exploits with interest.

In November Jesse won seven gold medals at the Paralymipcs New Zealand National Championships, and in 2009 won a bronze medal in the 100m backstroke at the Paralympic Youth Games in Melbourne.  His main goal is to qualify for the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, for which he trains up to 16 hours a week, on top of a full study load and extra events like the Epic. 

Congratulations to HBHS swimmer Jesse Reynolds (pictured, right), on winning a bronze medal in the 400m Freestyle event at the 2014 New South Wales Long Course Open Swimming Championships, held in Sydney last week. Jesse also achieved a personal best in the 100m Freestyle race, which is the event that he hopes to qualify for in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow later this year. His immediate goal is to achieve this target at the New Zealand National Open Championships in April.

Well done to Jesse on another fantastic achievement. We will report on his progress at the New Zealand Championships, and wish him every success as he attempts to qualify for the Commonwealth Games. Thanks also to Mrs Tracey Reynolds for keeping us up to date with Jesse's accomplishments.

Congratulations to Jesse Reynolds on being selected to join the High Performance Swim Team with Paralympic New Zealand, and on joining the team to travel to the IPC World Swimming Championships to be held in Montreal, Canada, this August.

Watch this space for updates, and good luck to Jesse as he joins his first High Performance Swimming camp with the team this Friday. 

HBHS student Jesse Reynolds (pictured here at the National Swimming Championships with his medal haul) has qualified for the IPC World Championships to be held in Montreal, Canada in August this year. 

Jesse did well in securing four gold and two bronze medals and breaking 5 current Paralympic NZ records in the S9 classification, including smashing his current 400m freestyle record.  He beat the MQS (minimum qualifying standard) in the 400 free by 10 seconds with a time of 4:32.88.  He also won gold in the 200m Individual medley, the 100m backstroke and the 100m butterfly.  

It was a very exciting event to watch, with so many of New Zealand's top swimmers, including the London 2012 Olympians and Paralympians being represented.   During the event there were many SNZ, PNZ, Oceania and World records broken which kept everyone on their toes.  There was also coverage of the event on Sky Sport, which was wonderful for these athletes who are at the top of their sport in this country. 

Jesse Reynolds (Yr 9) has had a spectacularly successful year swimming for Paralympics NZ (PNZ). It has just been confirmed that he is the holder of over ten PNZ National records for 2010 in his S9 swim category in both short course & long course pools. 

Jesse has been invited to participate in a PNZ swim training camp in early 2011 to qualify for