It is fair to say it was rare - a triple dead heat for gold.
Gore swimmer Stuart Smith (Hokonui) shared the top of the podium with Sean Glasgow (Papatoetoe) and Caleb Te Kahu (QE2) at the New Zealand age group division 2 championships at Moana Pool on Saturday night.
They each got a gold medal.
The triple dead heat came in the boys' 16-18 years 50m freestyle final, and when the times were announced a loud cheer went up from the crowd.
There was touchpad timing at the championships. All three swimmers recorded 26.02sec.
It was the third gold medal for Smith (17), a pupil at St Peters College in Gore, who also won the 100m and the 200m butterfly.
It seems likely it was the first triple dead heat at a national swimming championships in New Zealand.
Swimming New Zealand events manager Kent Stead told the Otago Daily Times he had no record of it happening before at a New Zealand championships.
The touchpad timing system puts swimming in the rare position that it can accept triple dead heats.
Triple dead heats occur only infrequently in any sport.
There was one at the East Sydney Swimming Club on November 15, 1941, in a 100yd race when S. Shaw, R. Gardiner and I. Cantor touched together.
It has happened in horse racing - first recorded on June 10, 1944, in the Carter Handicap at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Essex, England, when Brownie, Bossuet and Wait A Bit tied.
The first triple dead heat in harness racing occurred when Patchover, Payne Hall and Penny Maid dead-heated at the Freehold Raceway (New Jersey), on October 3, 1953.
And punters at Romford Greyhound Stadium, Essex, saw three dogs finish in a triple dead heat on February 8 last year.
