Talented Masterton swimmer William Prior was in fine form at the inaugural New Zealand summer short course swimming championships held in Auckland.
Prior, 15, contested three events and despite competing alongside such greats as Corney Swanepoel, Moss Burmester and Dean Kent did himself proud.
Day one saw him line up in the 400m freestyle and here he lowered his personal best time by over 2secs and broke both the Wairarapa undr-16 and senior records in the process.His time of 4min 6.58secs was also fast enough to requalify him as a national age group squad member.
Prior then had only a brief time to recover before taking part in his heat of the 200m butterfly and , not surprisingly, he was unable to better his personal best time in what is one of his specialist events. However, he still managed to lower both the Wairarapa under-16 and senior men's records.
On day three of the championships Prior raced in the 1500m freestyle which in a 25m pool requires 60 lengths of racing.
Originally seeded seventh his time of 16min 8.93secs was a personal best by a massive 23.67secs and placed him seventh It was also close to the national under-15 record and was a Wairarapa under-16 and senior men's record..as well a national squad time for his age group.
Both Prior and his coach Jiri Mikolas were part of a presentation ceremony at the completion of the championships at which their achievements were recognised by Swimming New Zealand, along with those of other swimmers who have achieved New Zealand status.
l Prior and his Masterton clubmate Tyson Hullena 16, travelled to Auckland after the recent New Zealand College Games to train with ex-Masterton club member Donna Bouzaid and her West Auckland Aquatics squad.
Bouzaid is now rated as one of the country's top swimming coaches and she has established a mentoring relationship with her old club in Masterton.
Masterton swimmer shows talent
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