Tauranga teenager Tristan Eiselen qualified in first place overall for the 100fly finals at the New Zealand National Age Group Championships 2018 with a time of 56.72.

'It felt really good to beat Lewis Clareburt and those other 17 and 18-year-olds in the heats, but I knew they had more in the tank and that the finals will look a bit different,” says the 15-year-old.

In the finals for the 100fly that night he won a gold medal and came fourth overall, with only three 18-year-old boys swimming faster than him.

He just missed out on breaking Danyon Loader's New Zealand Age Group record of 56.38, but there was no disappointment there.

'Yeah, I tried really hard to get that record, but I will have another go at Opens.”

Over the course of the week Tristan won three National gold medals in the 50, 100 and 200 butterfly events, and one silver medal in the 50 free style.

Tristan was consequently selected for the New Zealand swimming team to compete in the Australian State Teams in October, but due to the fact it's in the same week as NZ Short Course Champs, he declined to take up his spot in that team.

Tristan got to measure himself against those Aussies in April last year when he represented New Zealand at the Australian Age Group Championships in Brisbane and won two silver medals for New Zealand.

He plans to swim at the Queensland Championships in December and hopefully this time it will be a gold that he brings home.

Tristan's main stroke is butterfly and he was coached by Daniel Cooper.

He has big dreams for the future and hope to represent New Zealand one day at the Olympics. So, it looks like Kiwis might be able to fly after all.