Young Florentine takes on King of the Bays kids’ race
This year Florentine Buys is the youngest swimmer amongst thousands in the King of the Bays race
There will be thousands of competitors at the State King of the Bays ocean swim this weekend and the youngest of them all will be Florentine Bus at just six years old.
Florentine hopes to make the biggest splash of them all when she sets off in the 200m swim in the Ocean Kids series.
Florentine started swimming lessons when she was just six months old and this will be the first time she has entered this event.
“I’m looking forward to getting a medal, that will be cool,” she says.
The Sandringham resident will be joined by her brother, Theo, 8, in the Ocean Kids swim while dad Tony will be swimming the full 2.8km course.
“As I was entering, I saw the kids’ one,” Mr Bus says. “I asked them about it and they were keen as mustard to enter.”
State NZ Ocean Swim Series event director, Scott Rice says it is fantastic to see an increasing numbers of families swimming together.
“We always get wonderful feedback from kids and their families on the State Ocean Kids events so we jumped at the chance to offer kiwi kids the opportunity to vie for the opportunity to train with their Olympic heroes.”
“It’s great to welcome Florentine as the youngest registered swimmer for the King of the Bays event and we hope that she will continue to take part in the series for many years to come.”
More than 1500 swimmers of all ages and abilities are expected to take to the water as the swim celebrates a decade. This will be final and series decider in the State NZ Ocean Swim Series which has attracted more than 6500 entries.
Swimmers can choose from the State Ocean Kids 200m or step it up to 300m or 1km.
For the really keen there’s the 2.8km course.
This year will be a decade since the first King of the Bays event was organized by Scott Rice, an ex-competitive swimmer who had a vision to make ocean swimming accessible to people of all ages and abilities.
As for young Florentine, well she is treating it as a run-up to one day taking part in the Weetbix Tryathlon.
State King of the Bays is on April 6.
