Crack Carterton swimmer Joe Hammond won himself a bronze medal and set a new Wairarapa record in the process on the first day of this week's national age group swimming championships in Wellington.
Contesting the final of the boys 16 years 200m individual medley, Hammond placed third behind Mathew Myers
of North Shore and Samuel Perry of St Peters in a time of 2m 11.95s, just inside the previous Wairarapa record established by William Prior of 2m 12.01s.
Hammond's effort was a dramatic improvement on the 2m 15.24s he had returned to qualify for the championships and also on the 2m 16.42s he had clocked when posting fourth fastest time in the heats.
Myers won the final in 2m 10s with Perry second in 2m 10.08s while Hammond was comfortably ahead of fourth-placed William Campell of Wharenui who was timed at 2m 12.53s.
Masterton duo Sven Tobias and Jacob Smith also participated in the heats of the 200m individual medley, Tobias being 27th fastest in the boys 14 years age group with a time of 2m 28.93s and Smith 15th in the boys 15 years section with a time of 2m 23.80s.
