Butterfly with a bullet | Auckland Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Auckland

An awestruck John Landrigan watches poolside as a bright new swimming talent goes through her routine.

Poolside, Samantha Brown folds her tracksuit into her sports bag, pulls on a swimming cap and plucks at the elastic of her goggles until they are secure.

Diving into the pool, she eases into her workload before unleashing the powerful butterfly stroke that is winning her accolades around Auckland. "I've always loved the water. I started swimming as a baby and really get into it," she says.

But the 12-year-old Glen Eden Intermediate student is no duck out of water, either. She can turn her hand to most sports, including representative netball.

"Swimming certainly helps my fitness out of the pool heaps. I notice it in cross-country, and know I'm not nearly as tired after playing netball."

In September,  Samantha puts her training and exceptional fitness to the test. She will join 70 schoolmates and hundreds of Year 7 and 8 students from 19 Auckland schools for the New Zealand Community Trust Association of Intermediate and Middle Schools (AIMS) Games.

The Tauranga event is considered an elite sporting competition for this country's emerging talent. It showcases the best from 106 schools in badminton, basketball, cross-country, football, golf, gym, hockey, multisport, netball, rugby sevens, squash, swimming, tennis and water polo.

Samantha is keen to perform well, at both netball and swimming. Over the week-long festival she will swap goggles for the bib several times, compete for the ball as a goal attack in her school's netball team while targeting 12 individual and two relay team titles in the pool.

It's feasible the talented athlete will come home with a swag of medals. At July's Auckland Winter Swim Champs, she won nine gold medals and a bronze. In each of those events she broke all her own personal best times. At the 2009 AIMS Games, Samantha won silver for overall points in the Year 7 females.

"This year is going to be hard. There are lots of great swimmers competing."

Aiming high

The NZCT AIMS Games grew from a small sporting festival to what is now considered by some to be the national championships for intermediate and middle schools.

Since its inception in 2004 it has grown from 750 competitors and 17 schools to 106 schools and 3871 competitors  for 2010.

There are 850 coaches and trainers also signed to attend.

Sport Bay of Plenty spokes-woman and tournament director Vicki Semple expects many hundreds of parents, guardians and teachers to converge on Tauranga. She has no idea how much the event brings to the local economy each year, but says the city is fully booked.

"The sporting championships gives Year 7 and 8 students an opportunity to compete as an individual or in a team against the best of their age in New Zealand in a variety of  sports," she says.

Given the large number of swimmers, Samantha's heats are not expected to finish until 10pm. Her netball team has not lost a game in its winter league so is expected to put in a strong performance.

The games open on Sunday, September 5.