Where there's a will

Rapha will find a way

Something to aspire to.

Because this is a column about growing old, you’d expect me to be writing about old people. Although it’s hard to believe, we have young friends too.

I’ve often spoken about the benefits of sport in keeping us healthy, it also means we get to meet great people of all ages.

Our friend Raphael is one of life’s enthusiasts and he’s about to face one of his greatest sporting challenges yet - the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

You may have seen a few glimpses of the world’s best swimmers competing over the past few days - there’s a nightly summary on Sky Sports, if you have that.

Next week it’s the chance of the age group swimmers.

As an aside, Raphael isn’t the first of our friends to have competed at this level. Our much older friend Ben went to the same world championships, when they ran under the branding of FINA, back when he turned 60, which must be about 13 years ago now.

Ben won gold in three events in the pool (two for butterfly, one for freestyle) and was third in the open water swim over 3km.

Raphael will be competing in four pool swims, an open water swim and three relays and we wish him similar success.

To give Raphael some coverage and perhaps enhance his chances of picking up a sponsor or two, I wrote a story for a local newspaper, but unfortunately they didn’t have space this week, so will run it next week.

Since Raphael will already have started swimming by then, here’s a sneak preview for keen swimmers and for those who love those with the energy to dream and aspire to greater challenges.

And Good Luck Rapha!

Here’s the story:

It’s been a big year for swimmer Raphael Borborema, and it’s about to get bigger.

The Brazilian/Kiwi was the top swimmer in his age group in the New Zealand Ocean Swim Series last summer, he broke a long-standing national breaststroke record in the pool in May, he’s just been named as a “Swimfluencer” by the ocean swim series organisers and next week he travels to Fukuoka in Japan to take on the world’s best in the World Aquatics championships.

The solo father of Noah, Raphael works as an IT specialist for Bell Computers in Nelson.

Raphael and Noah

He started swimming seriously as a teenager in Brazil, competing at regional, state and national level and coming away with a few state titles in breaststroke.

Giving competition away when he went to university, Raphael got back into the sport in 2006, swimming competitively in Sao Paolo.

A two-year stay in New Zealand from 2007 also gave him the chance to sample open water swimming when he took on the 3km Auckland Harbour crossing.

That was the end of swimming for many years.

He returned to New Zealand with his partner in 2013, moving to Nelson in 2021, but his relationship failed soon after.

“My head was in a bad place. I went to the pool (Riverside) to see if some exercise would help. 

“There I met a swimmer who told me about the early morning training group.”

At those sessions Raphael met a group of people who have become his best friends and supporters.

Open water became the norm, with the Port Nelson and Rylock swim series running through the summer.

He also took on the 5km Akaroa Harbour swim, part of the NZ Ocean Swim Series, which gave him a taste for national competition.

Last summer, wins in Wellington, Mt Maunganui and Mission Bay gave him the national title in M35-39.

Moving from the ocean back to the pool, Raphael rediscovered his specialist breaststroke event. Without specific training, in May he broke the 200m record in a time of 2 minutes 42 seconds. The old record dated back to 2007.

Having taken on a personal coach to sharpen his speed, Raphael left the tight security of the Riverside Pool training group to focus on pool swimming. Sao Paolo coach Rodrigo Trivino won the best master coach award in Brazil in 2021 and 2022 and is also an age group world champion in the pool.

Trivino put Raphael on a customised programme, now given a sharp focus with his breaststroke win.

The decision was made to follow international competition at the world championships in Japan.

Since then, the Ocean Swim organisation has made him a “Swimfluencer”, using his high profile and social media skills to motivate and encourage other swimmers heading into next summer.

On Sunday July 30 he flies to Fukuoka, where he’ll compete in the M40-44 category, swimming firstly in the 3km open water swim, then into the pool for breaststroke events over 50m, 100m, and 200m and butterfly over 50m.

As well, he’ll be a team swimmer in three relay events, swimming freestyle legs in men’s and mixed teams and breaststroke in a medley relay.

Follow Raphael’s progress in Japan using his Instagram @raphaswims.