Suzanne Kennedy

Timaru swimmer Suzanne Kennedy (these days Sue Roxburgh) wasn’t in the spotlight long. As a 16-year-old, she swam in the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle events at the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games, but the following year retired from the sport.

Her family, which included six brothers and a sister, were heavily involved in sport. “All the family were into squash, rugby and netball, so as a swimmer I was the odd one out,” she said. Her father Don played rugby for the South Island and her mother Mavis had captained the South Canterbury netball team.

Sue started swimming with a friend at the Century Baths in Timaru when she was 11.

Her first swim coach was Johnny Donaldson, who’d pick her up to train at the West End baths. Later she was coached by Paul Jones.

She made rapid progress, and in 1973 moved to Dunedin to swim under coach Duncan Laing. She attended Columba College while in Dunedin. “It was a whole new environment really, the squad culture. It was daunting.” She said she was fortunate to have a good mentor in Dave Gerard. “He gave me some tools to get through.”

Kennedy’s career clashed with freestyle specialists Heather Coombridge, a 1972 Olympian, Jaynie Parkhouse, a 1974 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, and the talented Allison Calder of Dunedin. Even so, Kennedy won national titles over 400m in 1974 (representing Eastern Districts) and 1500m in 1975 (representing Otago).

She said she found the size of the Commonwealth Games daunting.

In the 200m freestyle she was 5th in her heat, in 2min 13.93s. some distance away from making the final. She was closer in the 400m, finishing 3rd in her heat, in 4min 36.89s, 14th overall.

Her best event was the 800m, in which she swam 9min 24.32s in her heat, 11th overall. Interestingly, one swimmer behind her was a 13-year-old representing Fiji – Rebecca Perrott. Within a short time, Perrott had returned to New Zealand to live and had become one of the world’s great freestyle swimmers. In Christchurch, the 800m freestyle was won in thrilling fashion by Jaynie Parkhouse.

Kennedy set her sights on making the New Zealand team for the 1975 world champs in Cali, Colombia, but missed out.

She was, she said, told by a Swimming New Zealand selector that she was too old for the sport – at 16! “I was pretty disillusioned.”

After a few more months she headed for Australia. In her final national championships, she’d won the 1500m in a New Zealand record of 17min 37.52s, breaking Parkhouse’s record. And she’d picked up medals in the 200m, 400m and 800m, so was still swimming well.

She was offered a job in Canberra by Wellington coach Bill Robertson and celebrated her 18th birthday there.

Shortly after, she met her husband, Ian Roxburgh, and they married in 1978. They stayed in Canberra until 1993, when they moved to Sydney.

Swimming remained a constant in Sue’s life. She built up and ran her own swim schools, focusing on learn-to-swim classes, until she and Ian retired to Copacabana, an hour north of Sydney.