John McGlashan College pupil Jeremy Hopkins has won his third gold medal at the New Zealand age-group championships in Wellington.
Hopkins (13) won the 200m backstroke in an Otago record time of 2min 19.76sec in the boys aged 12 and 13 grade. It was worth 513 Fina points.
For the third time in two days, Hopkins broke an Otago record held by a former Olympian.
This time it broke the record of 2min 20.28sec Jonathon Duncan set in 1996. Duncan competed at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Duncan also went to John McGlashan College.
Hopkins, who competes for the Neptune club, is a member of Gennadiy Labara's Osca squad.
He started swimming when his family lived in Oamaru and they have shifted to Dunedin for the sake of his swimming.
The other Otago medallist on the second night of the championships was Carina Doyle (Waves) in the girls aged 17 and 18 grade 100m freestyle.
Doyle was second in 59.02sec.
It was worth 686 Fina points.
South Australian Emmabeth Jensen (16), who trained with Andy Adair's Waves squad when she attended Columba College last year, won a gold medal in the girls aged 16 grade in the 400m individual medley. Her time was 5min 03.32sec and was worth 701 Fina points.
