Martin Harris
Martin joins Swimming Club as Director of Coaching/Head Coach after retiring from a successful swimming career abroad. Born in London, Martin swam internationally for Great Britain for 15 years. He moved to NZ in 2004 and joined Wharenui at the beginning of 2005. Martin’s specialty events are 50m, 100m & 200m backstroke. He has swum at 2 Olympics, 5 World Champs (short & long course), 4 Europeans and 3 Commonwealths, winning Commonwealth Gold in the 100m backstroke in 1994. His last major meet for GB before officially retiring was the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002, at the age of 33, where he made two finals and was the fastest backstroker over 50m in Britain. Martin broke over 50 British Records during his career, with his longest standing records being the 50m & 100m backstroke which he held for 12 years.

After retiring from competitive sport, Martin was appointed Head Coach at a well known London Swimming Club, still keeping a hand in masters competition himself. He has also trained and prepared a number of triathletes for world class competition. Martin is UK ASA qualified and brings with him to our club a wealth of first hand knowledge including skill & technique, land training application, mental preparation and nutritional education.

Andrew McLay

Andy is the Senior Coach at Wharenui, having moved here in 2005 from Ashburton Aquatics where he was Head Coach. Until relatively recently, Andy was a competitive swimmer who swam at top Age Group level and was also a consistent finalist at the New Zealand Open Nationals. For Andy, the natural progression was to establish a career in coaching the sport he has loved for such a long time.