The early-morning starts have paid dividends for Waves swimmer Stef Gillespie, who broke the only provincial record on the first night of the Otago championships at Moana Pool last night.
Gillespie (13), a year 10 pupil at St Hildas, broke her own record in the girls aged 13 and under 1500m freestyle.
Her time of 18min 00.63sec was a personal best by 3sec.
Gillespie, one of the most promising younger members of Andy Adair's Waves squad, also won the 800m in her age group in a time of 9min 37.86sec.
The alarm clock wakes her up at 4.30am, five days each week, to start her 2hr 30min training session at 5am with Adair's squad at Moana Pool.
She is driven to the pool by her mother, Sharlene Gillespie-Smith, who swam in the late Duncan Laing's training squad in the 1970s and represented the province at national championships.
The other impressive performance of the night came from Cameron McMahon (Neptune), who won the boys aged 13 and under 1500m in a personal best time of 17min 52.50sec.
McMahon (13), who was born in Texas, emigrated to New Zealand with his family from the United States six years ago.
He has been swimming competitively since the age of 6 and joined Laing's squad when his family settled in Dunedin.
He is in heavy training at the moment and covered 130km in the Invercargill pool during an 11-day camp with Gennadiy Labara's Osca squad.
Matthew Glassford (Neptune), another member of the Osca squad, swam a personal best by 12sec when winning the open men's 1500m in 16min 30.31sec.
Jeremy Tasker (Oamaru) swam a personal best time by 25sec when he won the men's aged 14 and 15 800m in 9min 41.71sec.
He had a tight battle with Kieran Applegarth (Waves) before winning by 4sec.
Carina Doyle (Waves) won the women's aged 14 and 15 800m in a personal best time of 9min 30.40sec.
