Year 9 student Jayden Lee qualified for nine events at the 2024 Age Group swimming Championships, held in Hawke's Bay from April 15-19. The talented young swimmer qualified for 50m, 100m, 200m Freestyle, 50m, 100m, 200m Backstroke, 50m, 100m Butterfly, and 200m Individual Medley. 

Jayden won the 50m backstroke gold medal in the 13 year old age group, with his 28.87 time just slower than Rio Olympian Corey Main's 28.74 New Zealand age record. In addition, he broke current Olympian Taiko Torepe-Omsby's 2017 Canterbury West Coast Record of 29.37.

Jayden, who swims for Waitaha Swim Club, also placed third in the 100m backstroke with a time of 1:03.29. This broke the Canterbury West Coast record for his age group (1:03.44) - a record unbroken since 2001.

Jayden narrowly missed a medal in the 200m backstroke, finishing in fourth place.

This success comes after a record-breaking swim at the Canterbury Secondary Schools' Swimming Championship earlier in April. 

Jayden won first place in the 13-year-old 50m backstroke, setting a new record of 28.59 seconds. The previous record was 29.26.

In the Open grade, he also placed second in the 100m Backstroke.

These performances saw him receiving the Outstanding Junior Swimmer award.