Andrew Trembath snared silver in the men's 400m individual medley at the national swimming championships in Auckland on Tuesday night.
The 19-year-old Neptune swimmer, who qualified for the final as the second-fastest swimmer behind Hamilton's Nathan Capp, touched the wall in the medal race in 4min 32.20sec.
It was faster than his time (4min 37.74) in qualification, but he could not match Capp, who powered to gold in 4min 18.75sec.
Trembath held off Manawatu's Blake Gunn for silver by 0.58sec.
Fellow Neptune swimmers Matthew Glassford and Jeremy Tasker also qualified for the medal race, but had to settle for sixth and eighth respectively.
Trembath also featured in the men's 50m backstroke final on Tuesday night, but finished ninth in a typically frantic final.
Auckland's Daniel Hunter won in 25.87sec, while just 0.63sec separated places second to ninth.
Trembath stopped the clock in 26.96sec.
Otago's only other medal during the first two days was won by Wanaka para swimmer Hamish McLean.
The 16-year-old won silver in the men's 12 and over freestyle para multi-class behind Hamilton's Jesse Reynolds (19).
McLean clocked 5min 28.16sec, while Reynolds comfortably claimed gold in 4min 42.90sec.
The Wanaka swimmer also qualified for the men's 12 and over freestyle para 200m individual medley, which was held during the third finals session last night.
Neptune's Kate Godfrey also had a chance to claim a medal when the meet continued last night.
She finished second in the women's 200m individual medley preliminary yesterday morning, touching the wall in 2min 23.31sec.
Aucklander Chloe Francis qualified fastest (2min 21.11sec), making her favourite for last night's medal race.
Two Kiwi swimmers achieved the qualifying standard for the Rio Olympics in yesterday's morning session.
Bradlee Ashby (20), of Waikato, clocked 2min to go 0.28sec under the qualifying standard in the men's 200m individual medley, and set a national record.
His time was 0.03sec faster than Dean Kent's old national mark, set in 2007.
Auckland's Helena Gasson (21) also set a national record on her way to going under the qualifying mark in the women's 100m butterfly.
Gasson clocked 58.66sec in the 100m butterfly.
It was 0.08sec under the qualifying mark, and 0.05sec faster than Sophia Batchelor's 2012 record. Later, Lauren Boyle went under the Olympic qualifying mark as she added the 400m freestyle title to the 800m crown she claimed on Monday night. Her time of 4:08.28 was well off her personal best time and New Zealand record of 4:03.63.
The meet will wrap up tomorrow night.
