Tauranga athletes make up half the Aquaferns, New Zealand's artistic swimming team, who are currently in Japan to compete at the Aquatic World Championships.

Artistic swimming, formerly named synchronised swimming, is a physically demanding sport.

The athletes perform lifts, throwing their teammates into the air as they showcase daring acrobatic moves or amazing displays of stability and flexibility, all without touching the bottom of the pool and with long periods of holding their breath underwater.

For Tauranga athletes Eva Morris, Eden Worsley, Karlina Steiner, Avalee Donovan-Trewhella and Chloe Boyt, alongside five more athletes from around New Zealand, the last three months have been full of hard mahi and teamwork. They've trained six days a week, 7-9 hours per day to prepare for Worlds, both in the pool and in the gym working on strength and flexibility.

At Worlds, the team will compete in three team events and two duets. Alongside the traditional Free and Technical team events, the Aquaferns will be the first ever New Zealand team to compete in an Acrobatics team routine. The Aquatics World Championships is an Olympic qualifying event and the Aquaferns have a lofty goal, to be the top ranked country in Oceania. Claiming that top spot would open up the possibility of an Olympic nomination for Paris 2024.

Our Tauranga athletes have given up work, university or school to train as full-time athletes, in order to represent their country. This means a lot of time away from friends and family, and a lot of ‘I can't sorry, I've got training'.

Eva Morris, left, Chloe Boyt, Eden Worsley, Karlina Steiner and Avalee Donovan-Trewhella. Photo: Kate Boyt.

Otumoetai College year 13 student Chloe Boyt says, 'The added pressure of keeping up with school after training has been challenging. After hours of intense physical training your brain just wants to switch off, but I need to keep up with my schoolwork to keep meeting my academic goals as well as my sporting ones.”

'We don't really like to use the word sacrifice when it comes to synchro, as we choose to spend hours training and time away from home because of the love we have for our sport,” says swimmer Eden Worsley. 'Throughout this campaign, of tough trainings, early mornings and long hours, being part of a team filled with such amazing friends has always been so motivating and inspiring for me.”

One of the driving factors behind the huge success of Tauranga athletes at a national level is Tauranga Artistic Swimming Head Coach, Suzie Ribeiro. Suzie has joined her athletes for this campaign, as Co-Coach for the New Zealand Aquaferns. It is clear that Suzie is incredibly proud of how her athletes have stepped up during this campaign. 'As the more experienced members of the Aquaferns, the Tauranga athletes have taken on a mentoring role with the new squad members. Artistic swimming is a team sport, so it is very rewarding to see the athletes helping each other and building up skills and resilience together”.

Karlina Steiner, who has been training with Suzie for nearly 10 years, says 'Suzie has a special ability to push us to the point of exhaustion, but still make trainings fun. She lets us pick the music for our warmups, even though she doesn't always share our taste in music.”

'As a team and for me personally, the goal is to finish the competition with no regrets, do our absolute best now and know that whatever happens we had nothing else left to give.” says Avalee Donovan-Trewhella.

At 25, Eva Morris is the oldest member of the squad. Eva says while the sacrifice has been 100% worth it, it does come at a financial cost. 'Synchro is a user pays sport, so training full time makes it very hard to have a consistent income. We rely heavily on support from our families and fundraising to cover our costs. We have set up a Givealittle page this year that will help get our team to the World Aquatic Championships, and we're grateful for any support we receive.”

If you would like to support the team while they're in Japan, visit their GiveALittle page, https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/aqua-ferns-aquatic-worlds. To follow along on their exciting journey in Japan, visit their Instagram page @nzsynchrosquad.